Cultural Competence in Public Health

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Abstract

Becoming culturally competent is a pressing priority for public health decision makers and decision making, if we are to ensure that strategies are delivered to maximize health equity and minimize health inequalities. Decision makers across government, nongovernment, and research sectors have commonly equated these considerations with increased need for resources. By contrast, the shift toward achieving cultural competence in public health practice is likely to reveal new ideas about intransigent factors contributing to health inequalities and innovative strategies for health promotion and public health. With increasing population diversity globally, cultural competence will become the hallmark of high-quality public health systems, programs, and research.

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Professor Elizabeth Waters is interested in public health research, practice, and policy that aim to make a difference in health inequalities and health equity. She led the Australian NHMRC Working Group on the development of the 2005 NHMRC publication, Increasing Cultural Competence in Health: A Guide for Policy, Practice, and Partnerships. She is actively involved in research partnerships with communities to develop programs and interventions where the process is culturally competent and the outcomes are multisectoral, and oriented toward addressing social determinants of health. She completed her MPH at Monash University and her DPhil at Oxford University. She is also the Coordinating Editor of the Cochrane Public Health Review Group which aims to summarize the evidence on upstream public health interventions with a focus on equity.

Dr Lisa Gibbs is interested in research that focuses on sociocultural differences and engagement of marginalized groups through health-promoting community interventions. She is currently managing a range of child obesity prevention, child oral health, child injury prevention, and community health and well-being projects involving culturally diverse and low-income communities, using mixed-method evaluations. Her doctoral research explored men's experience of chronic illness and access to health services. These studies are all characterized by research partnerships with community organizations with a focus on developing cultural competence and community-based participatory approaches to research and interventions. She completed her BSc (Hons) at University of Melbourne and her PhD at Deakin University.

Elisha Riggs is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Elisha's research focuses on incorporating health promotion and public health strategies in the development and implementation of community interventions. Her work involves establishing and maintaining strong community partnerships and engaging stakeholders at all levels. She is currently completing her PhD, focusing on the sociocultural determinants of child oral health with refugee and migrant communities. Elisha is interested in research that makes real differences to health inequalities and that works toward addressing the social determinants of health.

Naomi Priest is a Research Fellow with the Cochrane Health Promotion and Public Health Field where her work focuses on systematic review methods for complex community interventions and equity evidence for public health decision making. Naomi's other research interests are in the areas of child health inequalities and cross-cultural research. She is currently completing her PhD, focusing on Aboriginal child health and well-being in urban Melbourne. Naomi trained as an occupational therapist in South Australia where she worked in community settings for a number of years. She has considerable experience developing and implementing health promotion and community development interventions with high-risk and disadvantaged communities, particularly with young children and families.

Dr Andre Renzaho is a Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University. An experienced and active researcher covering a wide area of public health research, he has been sitting on a number of expert panel committees and reference groups including the Nutrition in Culturally Diverse Communities by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing and Eat Well Victoria Partnership. Over the past 6 years Andre has convened, chaired, or been involved in nine government-sponsored steering committees covering the areas of refugee health service model, language services, refugees and humanitarian entrants research strategy, culturally appropriate aged care, healthy eating communication strategy, maternal and child health and preschool services linkage, and the Somali Action Research. As the Founder and Director of the International Centre for Refugee Public Health and Nutrition, he has traveled extensively planning, implementing, documenting, and evaluating public health and nutrition programs in more than 15 countries, focusing on cultural competence frameworks, knowledge, attitudes, practices, and behaviors, public health outcomes, acculturation, nutritional status, sociocultural influences, complex humanitarian emergencies, and human-rights-based approaches.

Maree Kulkens is the Manager of Health Promotion Programs within a large inner urban community health service in Melbourne. She has extensive experience working with culturally and linguistically diverse communities and has developed a wide range of innovative health promotion programs and services in response to identified needs within these communities. In her work she is responsible for developing partnerships with a range of stakeholders, including academic institutions, local and state governments, health services, and community groups to ensure a more coordinated and sustainable response to community health.

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