Cultural Competency In Health Promotion

Understanding the theoretical relevance and relationship between culture/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and cultural competence

Question:

Discuss about the Importance of Cultural Competency in Health Practice.

I am confident that my knowledge and study about health promotion would be significant for the said role. As I am currently pursuing an advanced degree in psychology, I believe that it will further enhance my ability to work for the NSW Health Community. During the course, I was fortunate to study as well as work with various health policies and practices of NSW. This has also helped me gain an overall understanding of the different legislative requirements of health practice. In the coming sections, I shall attend to the means by which I will meet the said requirements through relevant examples from theories.

Understanding of the theoretical relevance and relationship between culture/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and cultural competence

Within the course, I learned that the concepts of culture, ethnicity, cultural competence and socioeconomic status are fundamental to the Health Belief Model (Sayegh & Knight, 2013). The theory clearly states that health and wellbeing depend on an individual’s beliefs. Therefore, it is important to possess deep knowledge about different cultures and traditions prior to health promotion.

I performed the role of a health practitioner for the NSW Ministry of Health where I got the opportunity to utilize my knowledge about the concepts. With a good understanding of the Health Belief Model, I provided suggestions to the concerned authorities who were responsible for the campaign to aware Aboriginal people about the risks of smoking. I suggested the authorities that we should include Aboriginal students in the health campaign. I gave this suggestion, as I am aware of the fact that indigenous people have a different perspective regarding their health. To them, smoking is a means for alleviating stress and spending some personal moments, which they term ‘time out’ (Health.nsw.gov.au, 2018). The authorities welcomed my suggestion and it helped spread the message in a way that could be understood by the Aboriginal population. The entire process demonstrates my understanding about the concepts and the various social determinants that define health and related areas.

Being a health practitioner engaged in the task of promoting health awareness amongst the Australian population, I understand the importance of being culturally competent. Valuing and adapting to diversity, acquiring cultural knowledge, evaluating own cultural behavior and understanding difference are some elements and principles that define cultural competency (Garneau & Pepin, 2015). I was opportune to meet with some Aboriginal students and learn about their culture. I visited the Gumbaynggirr community in NSW and met the elderly Aboriginal people and some students as well (Aboriginalaffairs.nsw.gov.au, 2018). Prior to the visit, I had limited knowledge about the indigenous people and some misconceptions as well. However, the visit was enlightening as it helped me have a clearer idea about the community and their perception of health and healthy living.

Utilizing cultural competence in real-life situations

Along with the knowledge of the Health Belief Model and other relevant theories like the Ecological Model, that states that certain factors affect human health. Amongst these are the community factors, which exert a strong influence on the individual health (Sallis, Owen & Fisher, 2015). While working on the Aboriginal smoking campaign, I witnessed these factors and then utilized them to plan a proper health promotion (Health.nsw.gov.au, 2018). I can thus assert that cultural competency and its various principles and elements are relevant to health promotion.

The New South Wales government has devised numerous policies for ensuring a healthy life for its citizens. Some policies include the Mental Health Policy under which the government has implemented the Mental Health Reforms 2014-2024 that would ensure achievement of a healthy community (Health.nsw.gov.au, 2018). Further, the NSW Health policy also includes a separate policy for Aboriginal health.

A health professional has a crucial role to play within the population (Who.int, 2018). We are responsible for ensuring that each section of the population has access to improved health facilities. Therefore, we have to possess great knowledge about the cultural dimensions like cultural awareness, knowledge and skills (Huey Jr. et al., 2014). Within my course, I was able to acquire these three dimensions and it was further enhanced by my participation in the health campaign for the health ministry. The white Australian students often engage in anti-community activities like bullying or attacking students from the Indian or other Asian countries (Abc.net.au, 2018). To make sure that these incidences are checked, professionals must train and guide the students about the various cultures and the need to respect and value each community. I took the initiative to reach out to the white Australian students and understand their cultural conditioning that helped me assist the minority community students in a better way.

Valuing the diversity in culture within a society is a key element of cultural competency and is vital to the job role as well. New South Wales is known for its diversity in culture with indigenous and other communities residing here. It is thus essential for me to know about each culture, as that would allow me to approach a health consumer in a better way (Truong, Paradies & Priest, 2014).  Acknowledging the differences within culture is another important element of cultural competency, which I can apply in my professional field. In order to test the applicability of these elements within my field, I have decided to initiate a health promotion campaign focusing on non-white Australians living in NSW. The campaign would focus primarily on the intake of drugs amongst youngsters due to the feeling of isolation and rejection. I would establish an online community at first and invite the white Australian students to join and share their ideas on cultural diversity. In this way, I would be able to comprehend what the average Australian thinks of cultural diversity and the issues related to health.

Applying cultural competence to health promotion and community factors

In Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are a vulnerable group that have been neglected and tortured for years. I have witnessed the reluctance and hesitation myself while undertaking an activity for my course. Aboriginal people have a fixed set of rules that they follow while interacting with healthcare professionals. When I had a meeting with an Aboriginal elder, she did not make eye contact with me but she did respond to my queries. These little things may cause cultural hindrance for both health professionals and health consumers.

A lack of proper training on cultural competency at the higher level of healthcare system further escalates the issues that lead to failure in the professional practice. Many students like me had reluctance in taking up this course because we had misconceptions about the different communities in the country (Sheedy & Whitter, 2013). I can give a practical example of this as I too had an encounter with an Aboriginal boy of 15 years old who suffered from depression. I was initially annoyed and scared by him as he refused to share anything with me and often scared me away. However, I am now confident that I can handle the situation in a better way after undertaking this course and I can become a cultural support worker.

I can assure that I have gained immense knowledge regarding the job role and the minute details that need to be taken care of while undertaking it.

After doing the course, I can confidently assert that I have attained good level of competency that could assist me in ensuring a culturally safe place for the health consumers. I am also aware that the professional place cannot run well if the staff is not respected and valued. However, we have to remember that in order to ensure a culturally safe health environment for the health consumers, it is important to develop a staff that comprises workers from different cultures.

In order to make sure that the cultural support staff is balanced, I will recruit competent people who hail from not only Aboriginal communities but also from other minority and non-white groups in Australia. I will start an online campaign and invite youngsters to come and share their ideas on the ways to develop the healthcare system in the country.

I believe honesty and sincerity are the two prime requirements that relates to every job or role that we perform. I can proudly inform that I have both, apart from the academic and disciplinary qualifications. I would also like to add that I have learned about the profession and all its nuances through practice mostly and hence I possess actual experience of working in the field with the real people. Further, I have gained through knowledge about the different health policies of NSW. In order to understand the policies more clearly, I have even participated in government initiated health promotion campaigns like Aboriginal smoking and so on.

References:

Abc.net.au. (2018). Why bullied children are reluctant to seek help from teachers. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-16/why-bullied-children-are-reluctant-to-seek-help-from-teachers/8357006

Aboriginalaffairs.nsw.gov.au. (2018). Community Portraits | Data | Research & Evaluation | NSW Aboriginal Communities. Retrieved from https://www.aboriginalaffairs.nsw.gov.au/research-and-evaluation/data/community-portraits

Garneau, A. B., & Pepin, J. (2015). Cultural competence: A constructivist definition. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(1), 9-15.

Health.nsw.gov.au. (2018). Aboriginal communities and smoking - Tobacco and Smoking. Retrieved from https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/tobacco/Pages/aboriginal-communities-smoking.aspx

Health.nsw.gov.au. (2018). About Us. Retrieved from https://nnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/health-promotion/about-us/

Huey Jr, S. J., Tilley, J. L., Jones, E. O., & Smith, C. A. (2014). The contribution of cultural competence to evidence-based care for ethnically diverse populations. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 10, 305-338.

Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. (2018). The Core Competencies Needed for Health Care Professionals. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK221519/

Sallis, J. F., Owen, N., & Fisher, E. (2015). Ecological models of health behavior. Health behavior: Theory, research, and practice, 5, 43-64.

Sayegh, P., & Knight, B. G. (2013). Cross-cultural differences in dementia: the Sociocultural Health Belief Model. International Psychogeriatrics, 25(4), 517-530.

Sheedy, C. K., & Whitter, M. (2013). Guiding principles and elements of recovery-oriented systems of care: What do we know from the research?. Journal of Drug Addiction, Education, and Eradication, 9(4), 225.

Truong, M., Paradies, Y., & Priest, N. (2014). Interventions to improve cultural competency in healthcare: a systematic review of reviews. BMC health services research, 14(1), 99.

Who.int/hrh. (2018). WHO | Health professions networks. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/hrh/professionals/en/