Characteristics of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Mental Health Clients

The population of overseas‐born Australians continues to grow including the recent increase of immigrants and refugees from African countries. Due to this increase, healthcare services need to assess if current available services are culturally appropriate for African immigrant inpatients. This qualitative study, with a quality improvement focus, examined current services to identify key service gaps and consider recommendation to improve care of African immigrant mental health inpatients in the hospital from the point of view of staff working within the organisation. What was revealed is that services currently offered to African mental health inpatients were culturally inappropriate. Emerging themes included inadequate interpreter services, lack of cultural awareness staff training, lack of organisation link with other services, unmet spiritual needs, use of staff/families as interpreters, culturally inappropriate information, and lack of or inadequate culturally appropriate policies and framework. Changes to current practices are recommended to provide culturally appropriate mental health care to African inpatients.

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“…Linking services improves the appropriateness of services and promote the well‐being of CALD communities (Khawaja et al . ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…This is especially detrimental with mental health inpatients and could result in prolonged social isolation leading to paranoia and collective delusions (Dow 2011). Linking services improves the appropriateness of services and promote the well-being of CALD communities (Khawaja et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Service gaps related to culturally appropriate mental health care for African immigrants

Wamwayi

Cope

Murray

2019

Int J Mental Health Nurs

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“…Not only do experiences of migration often exacerbate or create mental distress, 75 but people can find the response of Australian mental health supports inappropriate to their needs. They also can face problems of seclusion and restraint in the mental health system because of issues such as language barriers and culturally different approaches to mental health and wellbeing.…”

Section: Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time to implement national mental health reform

Hickie

2015

Medical Journal of Australia

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“…For example, Australian researchers Khawaja, McCarthy, Braddock, and Dunne (2013) found that language barriers, financial constraints, lack of knowledge of services, social stigmas and lack of appropriate culturally competent health service providers led to poor utilisation of mental health services among people of some culturally diverse backgrounds. Similarly, ICEPA (2009), conducting an audit of culturally diverse populations and cultural responsiveness in Victoria, Australia health settings, determined that, when health services failed to understand the socio-cultural differences between health care organisations, their workers, and their patients, communication and trust between them suffered.…”

Section: Cultural Humility and The Health Care Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hospitals and cultural diversity: social worker experiences and reflections

Testa

2017

ANZSWJ

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INTRODUCTION:Social work accrediting bodies mandate that workers analyse ways in which cultural values and structural forces shape client experiences and opportunities and that workers deconstruct mechanisms of exclusion and asymmetrical power relationships. This article reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative study of frontline hospital social workers' experiences and understanding of their mandate for culturally sensitive practice. METHODS:The study involved one-hour, semi-structured interviews with 10 frontline hospital social workers. The interviews sought to understand how frontline workers and their organisations understood culturally sensitive practice. Drawing on their own social cultural biographies, workers described organisational policy and practices that supported (or not) culturally sensitive practice. Narrative analysis was used to extract themes. FINDINGS:Data indicate that frontline hospital social workers demonstrated their professional mandate for culturally sensitive practice. Workers were firm in their view that working with the culturally other requires humility as well as a preparedness to value and engage the multiple cultural meanings that evolve in the patient-worker encounter. CONCLUSION:The findings highlight that mandating cultural sensitivity does not necessarily result in such practice. Cultural sensitivity requires an understanding of how cultural and social location may be implicated in sustaining the dominant cultural narrative and signals the need for workers, systems and organisations to facilitate appropriate learning experiences to explore culturally sensitive practice.

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Characteristics of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Mental Health Clients

Cited by 12 publications

References 2 publications

Service gaps related to culturally appropriate mental health care for African immigrants

Service gaps related to culturally appropriate mental health care for African immigrants

Time to implement national mental health reform

Hospitals and cultural diversity: social worker experiences and reflections

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