We report and discuss the findings of a survey of a range of health care providers serving hauā (disabled) Māori in the Murihiku (Southland) region of Aotearoa New Zealand. To explore hauā Māori access to health services, we used a mixed methods approach beginning with a quantitative survey and followed by qualitative interviews. Twenty-nine (58%) completed surveys were returned and we interviewed representatives from 15 organisations. We found all organisations were disability accessible in the physical sense, but were less accessible from a cultural perspective. There appeared a misunderstanding between what could be deemed a non-racial, human rights approach of respect for all people, no matter the ethnicity (“We treat everyone who walks through the door the same”) and the importance of tikaka (customary Māori practice), for services provided for Māori. The most significant proposal resulting from this research was for organisations to have a local, trusted, cultural advisor to regularly discuss and review Māori clients. Individually, health facilities that provide services to Māori should evaluate their cultural awareness, service access and promotion, health information, and service effectiveness. This paper provides insights and suggestions to health organisations, such as physiotherapy services, on how they can improve their service accessibility to hauā Māori.
People from unique and diverse populations, (i.e., social groupings excluded by the dominant majority by, for example, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability or even rurality), experience dissimilar health outcomes. Members of such populations who have long-term health conditions experience further health disparities through inefficient management and treatment. This remains a significant hindrance to achieving equity in health outcomes. Being responsive and acting upon the cultural needs of unique and diverse populations within health services is pivotal in addressing health disparities. Despite provision of professional training to health professionals, cultural competency remains an elusive goal. This scoping study summarized available literature about what helped health professionals translate cultural safety concepts into practice. We searched electronic databases using MeSH terms and keywords for English language articles and reference lists of potentially included studies. Quality appraisal was undertaken using Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools. Data were charted, with a descriptive numerical summary and thematic analysis of study findings undertaken. Twelve qualitative studies with n = 206 participants were included. Learning through and from direct experience, and the individual qualities of professionals (i.e., individual capacity for relational skills and intentionality of engagement with one's own values and biases) facilitated translation of cultural safety concepts into practice. Also important was the need for cultural training interventions to address both issues of content and process within course design. Doing this would take into consideration the benefits that can come from learning as a part of a collective. In each of these themes was evidence of how health professionals needed the ability to manage emotional discomfort as part of the process of learning. A dearth of information exists exploring professionals' perspectives on translating cultural safety concepts into practice. There may be merit in designing educational interventions that look beyond the classroom. We also suggest that nurturing people's relational skills likely holds benefits to growing culturally safe practice as does increasing health professional's capacity to sit with the discomfort that occurs when paying attention to one's own and others values and biases.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.