WEEK 4: CULTURE LANGUAGE AND HEALTH

Question 1

What is cultural competency?

Answer 1

• Cultural competency – the ability to work effectively with people from different cultural and language backgrounds
o Acknowledging the importance of cultural practises
o A culturally competent health care system can help to eliminate inequalities in health
o “Cultural competency allows us to address the effects of the social environment that are shaped by culture and language”

Question 2

what is Linguistic isolation?

Answer 2

loss/inability to use their native language
• Language has aspects (dialect, expression) that build a central aspect to their personal identity, therefore, making them apart of a group
• Commonly experienced by migrants, older people, etc
• Associated with depression, isolation, helplessness, low levels of well-being

Question 3

How does language act as a barrier?

Answer 3

• Communication between healthcare professional and client/patient failure
• Failure to express their symptoms
• The way the healthcare professional may describe health may be incomprehensive
• A patient may feel the health care professional is impatient, dismissive, or talks down to him/her

Question 4

Why would non-majority language speakers be disproportionately represented in lower SES groups because?

Answer 4

This is because Language proficiency tends to be less important in doing the work of low paying jobs, even though it is required to do these jobs safely

Question 5

What is a CALD community in Australia?

Answer 5

A group of people whose members may speak a language other than English and who come from a background that is different from the mainstream culture.