Examples Of Cultural Considerations In Community Services

Cultural considerations:

For many years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been forced to adapt to mainstream or white man’s society as they have been placed in situations such as enforcement of relocation, migrating into urban society, the difficulty of finding employment, low income, housing that is regarded as inadequate and inaccessibility to health and community services.

This is often a result of cultural barriers. One cultural barrier that may be considered is the lack of identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, an example being minimal or no cultural artwork being displayed in health and community service centres such as hospitals. Also the lack of indigenous staff, who can relate more to the indigenous community and make them feel comfortable and welcome. Many mainstream workers and volunteers can be perceived as unfriendly, inflexible regarding time and intolerable, especially with children. These contributing factors can make indigenous people feel uncomfortable and out of place which can encourage them to be reluctant to access mainstream heath and or community

Mainstream services need to take into account gender, beliefs, local languages, and kinship systems, thus improving service delivery settings and making them more acceptable to the Indigenous community. There are many factors which can improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander access to mainstream services such as energetic indigenous leadership. I believe we need more indigenous, culturally aware people working in health services and undertaking leadership roles within health and community services to make these settings more culturally appropriate, to accommodate the indigenous community and to encourage people to access these services. (Australia,