Multicultural Health

Influences of Culture on Health

 Learning Objectives
 Understand the influences of culture on
health
 Understand factors impacting on
Multicultural Health Care
 A Definition

“Multicultural health is the phrase used to

reflect the need to provide health care
services in a sensitive, knowledgeable
and non-judgemental manner with
respect for people’s health beliefs and
practices when they are different than
your own”.
Ritter and Hoffman (2010) page 5
 Influences of culture on
health
Health in general is influenced by
 The environment

 Your genetics

 Socioeconomic and
 Social and cultural factors
Everyone has a cultural background.
Culture defines what we think, what we say
and what we do.
 Influences of culture on
health
Culture impacts on
 An individual’s perception of health and illness

 Their health behaviour

 beliefs of what is a health issue

 why they have the illness and

 influences how people perceive they should

talk about the illness.

 Influences of culture on
health
Being able to recognise accept and respect
cultural similarities and differences is an
important in the
 delivery of effective health care services and
 ability to provide this service within a cultural
context.

This is the focus of Multicultural Health.

 Factors impacting on health
care
 Language barriers and accents
 Communication
 Universal cultural patterns /norms
 Contextual factors eg housing, educational
level, socio-economic status
 Health beliefs
 Acculturation continuum factors or level of
cultural adaptation
 Alternate treatments
 Factors impacting on health
care
Religious and spiritual
Dietary and food requirements

Medication requirements

Birthing /end of life and death rituals

Access to and knowledge of services

Client support knowledge

Staff knowledge / competence/ support

PROPERTIES
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 Your experience
 Think about some situations you have
encountered where culture has had an
impact on a client’s health care
 Record your thoughts in the following
activity
PROPERTIES
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 Conclusion
 This series of slides has provided
information on the multi-cultural factors
that impacts on health care
 The next presentation will look at the
very important element of effective
communication with our multicultural
clients and co-workers