Cultural Awareness for General Practice - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Cultural Awareness for General Practice

Implementing a RACGP response to the Cultural Awareness training requirements of the Indigenous Practice Incentive

Jill Dixon

National Advisor

To work together to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is one of Australia’s highest health priorities. RACGP is committed to raising awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health needs. As a result, the RACGP National Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health has been formed to help ‘close the gap’.

Established February 2010

• Six staff:
• Manager
• National Advisor
• Medical Advisor
• Aboriginal Health Projects Coordinator
• Aboriginal Health Policy Officer
• Office Administrator

Dr Brad Murphy, a remote area solo GP in central Queensland and an Aboriginal man from the Kamilaroi people of northwest NSW.

“The health issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are important to me for personal reasons. These are my people and my family. The disparities in health outcomes in remote communities hit close to home for me.”

• RACGP position statement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
• Interpretive Guide to RACGP standards for ACCHSs
• Cultural safety training scoping study
• Warfarin Flipchart
• With NACCHO, review and update 2005 National Guide to preventive health assessment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

• Funded by DoHA
• Purpose:
• Draft and communicate a set of cultural awareness education criteria that meet QA&CPD standards
• Develop and make available RACGP online activity for cultural awareness education that will meet requirements of Practice Incentives Program Indigenous Health Incentive

Cultural awareness education is usually the first building block toward cultural safety. It helps participants to extend their knowledge about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture, explore attitudes and values that can influence their perceptions and behaviours, better understand some of the key issues facing Indigenous people and the health professionals who work with them and explore ways to be more culturally aware.

Cultural safety training helps participants understand what is needed to develop ‘an environment that is safe for people: where there is no assault, challenge or denial of their identity, of who they are and what they need.’[1] It usually involves participants identifying and planning improvements to their cultural safety practices, assisted by local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community representatives.

[1]Williams R. Cultural Safety – What does it mean for our work practice? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 1999; 23:213-4

• Online
• 3 hours, with 3x1 hour sessions:

Session 1: Background and Context

Session 2: Current Experience

Session 3: Ideas for Action

• Available free of charge to GPs and practice teams
• Will meet PIP Indigenous Health Incentive requirements
• For diverse group of learners

• enhance their awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and current health issues
• reflect on issues relating to health service delivery to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• consider appropriate improvements to their cultural safety practices
• engage appropriately with local communities

• Key moments in history
• Key policy influences
• Current policies and initiatives
• Key elements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture - and acknowledgement of diversity

• Social and emotional determinants of health
• Protective factors
• Chronic disease
• Accessibility – physical, financial, cultural
• ‘Case studies’ – ACCHSs and mainstream general practices

• Identification
• Implications for interpersonal relationships and (verbal and nonverbal) communication
• Accessibility
• Engagement with local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities

• GP writers recruited from different regions
• Aboriginal coordinating writers
• Faculty Board as review panel
• Media elements
• Interactive
• Link to cultural safety training

• To be developed for use in addition to QA&CPD criteria for adjudication of cultural awareness education
• NACCHO’s National Standards for Cultural Safety Training to inform cultural safety training criteria

• Advocate for culturally appropriate health delivery systems that will improve health outcomes for Indigenous Australians
• Work with key stakeholders (AGPN, AIDA, NACCHO, Affiliates, government, educational institutions) to achieve this outcome