Cross Cultural Communication Program
Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities are identified as a key priority area for Diabetes Australia. This page will continue to provide information on Diabetes Australia’s Cross Cultural Communication Program (CCCP) activities.
Cross Cultural Communication Committee
Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby: Understanding Gestational Diabetes
Diabetes Australia has produced a new educational DVD/video on gestational diabetes. The DVD is designed to help pregnant women and their families and is titled ‘Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby – Understanding Gestational Diabetes’.
The resource is aimed specifically at the Vietnamese and Arabic speaking communities and explains how to manage diabetes by adapting to a lifestyle of healthy eating and regular exercise. It looks at diabetes during pregnancy and warns women who have had gestational diabetes about future complications.
The 13 minute DVD/video is presented in either Arabic/English or Vietnamese/English and is available free from the Diabetes Australia National Office.
It was developed with the guidance of the Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy
Society and involved women from both Vietnamese and Arabic speaking communities
and their families. The producer Hilary Christmas is the consumer representative
on the National Diabetes in Pregnancy Advisory Committee. This project
was funded under the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) –
an initiative of the Australian Government, administered by Diabetes Australia
Ltd.
If you who would like a copy of the DVD/video (while stocks last) you
can call 02 6232 3800 or fax back the
attached form to Diabetes Australia at 02 6230 1535. In addition to
your name, postal address and phone number/e-mail address, you need to
indicate your preferred language/s and format (DVD or video).
Reports and publications
This report was also commissioned by Diabetes Australia as part of its Cross Cultural Communication Program funded under the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) Strategic Development Grant - an initiative of the Australian Government administered by Diabetes Australia.
For some time Diabetes Australia has been aware, as the survey of community health workers in this report found, that the biggest problems clients from Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) community experience in managing their diabetes were: knowing the correct foods to eat/managing diet and using medication.
Two of the key lifestyle factors which are central to self-management of diabetes, diet and exercise, are heavily influenced by culture and we have been well aware of the importance of targeting information about diet to communities in terms of their own culinary practices, beliefs and preferences. Diabetes Australia commissioned this report by the Dietitians Association of Australia and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association, as a contribution to its ongoing program of work to better meet the needs of CALD people with diabetes.
This report into the nutrition needs of three CALD communities, Arabic,
Greek and Samoan-speaking, is a first contribution to addressing the community
needs in this area.
Language Spoken at Home (LSAH) by Statistical Sub-Division (SSD) - Summary (pdf 151kB)
Language Spoken at Home (LSAH) by Statistical Sub-Division (SSD) - Gender Detail (pdf 216kB)
Diabetes in culturally and linguistically diverse Australians – Identification of communities at high risk, provides an overview of existing data and literature relating to the prevalence and impact of diabetes on a population already known to be at increased risk.
This information paper was prepared for Diabetes Australia by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and funded under the National Diabetes Services Scheme, an initiative of the Australian Government administered by Diabetes Australia.
In addition to the published report, the AIHW project also provided Diabetes Australia with extensive tables showing where people who spoke languages other than English at home live, not only by State and Territory but by Statistical Subdivision in each State or Territory by language spoken at home.
Other relevant publications
A National Profile of Diabetes Projects for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Community Groups
The above report was funded by the Diabetes Australia Research Trust (DART).
Health professionals working in the CALD area will be familiar with the issue identified in this report:
Currently in Australia there is no national body of information or formalised mechanism for sharing information regarding diabetes in CALD groups. Useful information to be shared could include: how and where CALD people access culturally targetted diabetes health promotion or diabetes education services, diabetes information or diabetes resources and education programs and evidence to support the effectiveness of these programs and resources. Therefore, information on the availability of diabetes education programs and resources developed specifically for CALD groups or health professionals working in the area of diabetes is difficult to ascertain. (page 6)
Diabetes Australia's Cross Cultural Communication Committee is examining the most effective and efficient ways of addressing this issue.
The report identified 39 projects.
Eighty two percent of the projects targetted consumers of diabetes services and the remainder (18%), health professionals working with people at risk of or living with diabetes. The 5 most frequently reported language groups were Chinese, Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Arabic. Table 1 shows the language and cultural groups targetted in the reported projects and the number of projects reported for each of these groups. (page 10)
Culturally Appropriate Diabetes
The above report was a joint initiative of the Diabetes Centre & Diversity Health Prince of Wales Hospital, South East Sydney Area Health Service (SESAHS), and was funded by SESAHS Multicultural Health Unit Cultural Diversity Enhancement Grants
It is produced here by kind permission of Linda Turner, formerly Manager of the Diabetes Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, and a former member of Diabetes Australia’s Cross Cultural Communication Committee.
The aim of the research was to gauge the satisfaction of clients in regards
to the provision of educational services and to elicit the range of issues
related to lifestyle (influenced by religious and cultural practices)
that may inhibit or facilitate the management of diabetes. Participants
were also invited to recommend suggestions that would improve the delivery
of educational services and enhance the cultural competency of the Diabetes
Centre. In total 57 questionnaires were undertaken with those who spoke
Bengali, Cantonese, Greek, Russian, Spanish and Tongan.
The analysis of the information collected sheds light on the challenges
in delivering a standard service to such a diverse group. The majority
of patients interviewed indicated that on the whole they were satisfied
with the services provided and considered that the staff did their utmost
in a respectful and responsive way to support them to cope and manage
their diabetes. However some suggestions for improvement were made, including
extending the educational program beyond group sessions to include multilingual/multimedia
information dissemination strategies and increasing the capacity of the
Diabetes Centre to cater to particular groups via the employment of bilingual
staff and the dissemination of information through existing community
networks and language specific media outlets.
Ethnic community stakeholders as partners in primary and secondary diabetes prevention
Abstract
Recently renamed as “Listening to Ethnic Communities about Diabetes”
this Victorian Government funded project was a winner of the 2003 Innovation
and Excellence in Primary Health Care Award, Community and Consumer Participation
category. The project is also being promoted as a model of best practice
in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) community engagement.
Listening to Ethnic Communities about Diabetes focused on Type 2 diabetes
by developing, piloting and evaluating culturally appropriate primary
and secondary prevention health promotion strategies with Maltese, Filipino
and Vietnamese communities in the municipality of Brimbank, Victoria.
The objectives of this research were to analyse how Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) consumers access and use language services – specically interpreters - and to determine consumer views on the effectiveness of language service provision in health settings. CEH interviewed a total of 86 people from the Italian, Vietnamese, Iraqi and South Sudanese communities across metropolitan Melbourne. All participants had used language services in the twelve months prior to the interviews. Four bilingual co-researchers were employed to work with the CEH principal researcher to undertake this research.
Nepean non-English speaking background food services development project: evaluation report (pdf).
Diabetes Australia is indebted to the Diversity
Health Institute (DHI) Clearinghouse, which has 76 references relevant
to nutrition in CALD communities, for the above reference:
Author:
Margot Rawsthorne,
Description:
The Nepean NESB Food Services Development Project was funded by the Department
of Ageing, Disability and Home Care from 2000 to 2005. The project aimed
to assist mainstream Home & Community Care (HACC) funded food services
to increase the access of non-English speaking background (NESB) clients
to their services in the Nepean region. The Nepean region was defined
as including: Penrith; Blue Mountains; Hawkesbury and Blacktown Local
Government Areas. The project involved supporting and resourcing food
services in relation to culturally appropriate food issues as well as
working with NESB communities to increase their awareness of food services
available to them.
The report includes: the project background; evaluation framework; policy
context; demographic context; project evaluation; information about six
pilot projects; key challenges; and conclusions and recommendations.
Date of Publication: 2005
Resource type: Report 38 pages
Availability:
Distributor:
Western Sydney Community Forum
Level 4, 146 Marsden Street
PO Box 208
Parramatta NSW 2124
switch: 02 9687 9669
fax: 02 9687 8665
web: www.wscf.org.au
email: wscf@wscf.org.au
