Cultural Safety Position Statement: Improving Healthcare Outcomes

This essay provides an analysis of a cultural safety position statement within a healthcare context, focusing on organizations like Danila Dilba and Healing Foundation and their efforts to provide culturally safe healthcare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It emphasizes the importance ...Read More

Running head: CULTURAL SAFETY
Cultural Safety
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Healing Foundation- Cultural Safety Position Statement
Organisation Background
Danila Dilba has begun their journey from year 1970 in order to address the fact of
the Aboriginal health care service. The organisation primarily focused on the health care
providence to the Aboriginal people. The organisation grew and held meetings with the
government for the changing in the policies of health care. They focused on the health care
providence to the Aboriginal people and thus the needs of the policy improvement and other
facts addressed by them. The organisation developed their health service facilities in the year
1991. Danila Dilba Biluru Butji Binnilutlum was the name of the organisation which was
given to them by the local Larrakia traditional custodians of Darwin province. Their services
were friendly and comfortable and they provide holistic care to the community people.
According to the organisation data they have 150 staffs providing care to 13,400 clients in the
year 2016-2017 (Ddhs.org.au, 2019).
The strategic direction of the organistaion resides the factor of identifying the factors
of the health issues including the mental trauma and the cultural discriminations. According
to that assessment the imbalance and the health issues would be addressed along with the
factor of the education to the people of the community. The process would be done with the
help of the public gathering of people in a place and discussing the problems. Healing
foundation also defines the healing, help the Aboriginal people to understand the effects of
colonisation, discuss their needs, informing them about the healing work and others. The
healing program also uses the help of the forum participants in order to find the treatment
needs of the regional Australian people. The organisation helped the forum participants of the
Alice Springs and the Torres Strait Islanders.

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The cultural safety of the target people is the primary focus of our organisation. In
order to address this factor our organisation promotes the problem of the community in terms
of the cultural safety and provides support from the government and other organisations
which provide financial and other supports to the Aboriginal people. The aim of the
organisation is to heal the trauma and the problems of the community by means of providing
education and the help in the process of the employment and other supports that helps them in
competent to the society. This factor provides the safety in the cultural way as well. The
promotion of the culturally safe health care for the community people is the primary aim of
our community.
Our position:
 Integrating services at each clinic.
 Providing services where our clients need them close to home.
 Offering services across the lifetime of each of our clients.
 Working in partnership with other organisations, researchers and community
members.
 Working alongside the mainstream health sector.
 Respect, trust, honesty, integrity, fairness, transparency, accountability, high
professional standards, ethics and quality are the factors considered in terms of
providing health care to the Aboriginal people.
 Recognise, respect and value the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples, cultures and languages.
 Deliver effective, culturally appropriate services through a highly skilled, culturally
competent and capable workforce.
 Take ownership of our decisions and actions.

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 Are open, transparent and honest in our communications and dealings with our
clients, community and each other.
 Encourage and support staff in the achievement of our shared goals.
 Actively seek client feedback to ensure we provide high quality, responsive and
culturally safe health care (Ddhs.org.au, 2019).
Why having such a statement is important for providing a culturally safe healthcare
environment
The cultural safety in the health care sector is a crucial factor that needed to be
implemented with an absolute importance. The factor of the cultural safety should be
implemented for the better health care providence to the patients without discrimination of
their social, economic, cultural or racial status. The factor of the health care should be equally
provided to all the patients without any kind of discrimination (Matthews, 2017). The
position statement of the Healing foundation helps the staffs of the organization to promote
cultural safety among the target people and the partner organizations as well. The promotion
of cultural safety also helped them in the determination and addressing the cultural safety
issues in the health care facilities. The health equity is the primary factor that has been
promoted and addressed by the organization with the help of the position statement among
the health care facilities. Another factor of the prevention of the stolen generation
phenomenon on the basis of the cultural safety can be addressed with the help of the position
statement and the work of the organization. The community centered approach of the
organization helped them in the development of the social, economic, physical and emotional
betterment of the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander and the Alice Spring community people
along with Darwin province people (Repo et al., 2017).
Introduction

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Danila Dilba primarily focused on the health care providence to the Aboriginal people
of Darwin province. In case of providing a well and safe care environment to the patients it is
very important to exert an effective communication with the patients present in the health
care setting. According to the study of Hunt et al. (2015), it is reported that, the effective
communication strategy in the health care setting will provide the benefits to the health care
professionals in terms of providing the best care to the patients of Alice spring Island and
Torres Strait Island.
Importance of Effective Communication
An effective communication in the health care setting of Australia will allow the
health care professionals to provide proper care to the Alice spring and Torres Strait Islander
patients of the country. By using an effective communication strategy in the health care
settings the health care professionals can take information from the aboriginal community
people regarding their health condition. In an effective communication, the health care
professionals may use non verbal communication in order to make effective communication
with the Torres Strait Islander people. According to the study of Armstrong et al. (2015), it is
reported that, non-verbal communication is very effective in building an effective
communication with the patients of Torres Strait Islander and Alice Spring Islander people.
On the other hand, in various studies it is also reported, as a part of effective communication,
building rapport with the patient to collect information regarding the disease condition of the
patients is also very effective. The study of Sabesan et al. (2014), showed that rapport
building with the patients has made the tasks easy for the health care providers as it will make
the patients feel comfortable in the health care environment as well.
Relation between health literacy and effective communication

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The health literacy and an effective communication between the physicians, nurses
and the patients are factors to improve the quality of health and healthcare. Promotions of the
evidence based health literacy and communication tools, practices and researches for the
health promotion are done. Health literacy is important because lower health literacy is
associated with higher rates of hospitalization per year (Miller, 2016). The rate of visiting of
the emergency departments also increases with lower rates of health literacy. The lower
literacy rates are associated with increase in the overall using health service. This also leads
to increase in the mortality rates and worst health outcomes among the elderly people. The
patients are having lower literacy have a higher risk of adverse events of health issues; those
have less knowledge about their own health. The people with lower health literacy normally
have lower adherence to education and also lead a poor life style. These people also have
poor knowledge about the importance of preventive health. They are also not able to
participate in managing themselves from getting infected from the infectious diseases. These
people suffer more from depression because of their health conditions and at the same time
they also spend much more money on medicines (Koo et al., 2016).Effective communication
in between the health care providers and the patients increase the health outcomes in both the
patients having high literacy rates and those who have low literacy rates. In order to attain
effective communication with both the patients and the nurses must listen effectively,
otherwise miscommunication will occur and the patients will not get effective care (Johnson,
2015).
The external influences
While analysing the external factors that may affect the culturally safe practice in the
health care settings, it can be said that the history of paternalistic government decisions can
affect the care process of Indigenous people in Australia. It is reported that, the decisions
have created barriers towards the care process of Indigenous people of the country. In

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addition to this the manifestation of colonisation has also contributed towards the segregation
of and breakdown of culture and cultural values of the indigenous people in Australia.
Moreover, there are various government policies and legislation that are also contributing to
the discrepancies in the health care environments for the Indigenous people in the country. In
addition to this the cultural and historical believes of the Indigenous people is also
contributing to the alteration of health care environment towards a negative manner
(O'Sullivan, 2018). On the other hand, the study of Nairn et al. (2014), it is reported that, the
mass media news regarding the health care facilities and such media news can distort the
health and social policy development. This study also reported that, the media saturation
shaped by such practices can affect the health care professionals practice in the health care
setting while delivering care to them.
Improvement of Culturally Safe Environment
From the position statement of the organization, it is reported that it is the duty of the
organization to provide proper health education and equal opportunities to the Indigenous
people so that they have equal opportunity to have the health care. According to this study of
Gray& Tesfaghiorghis (2018), it is reported that the enhancement of health education among
the Indigenous people has greatly influenced the improvement of health outcomes among
those people. Another position of the organization, also can affect the health outcomes of the
Indigenous Australian. This policy states that the removing the discrimination in terms of
race and culture of the society also can affect the outcome of the health care process.
According to the study of Walker, Schultz& Sonn (2014), it is reported that cultural
competency policy in the health care settings can affect the health outcomes in a positive
manner. On the other hand, it is also reported that the poor economic condition of the
Indigenous people can make the health outcome worse for the Indigenous people. So, the
organization statement of making the socio economic condition of the Indigenous people

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good can affect the health outcome in a positive manner as it will allow them to access the
primary health care facilities (Gray& Tesfaghiorghis, 2018).
Barriers and Recommendations
There are a few barriers in the way of implementing the position statements of the
organization which can alter the condition. While providing health education to the
Indigenous Australians, the lack of knowledge among the workers of the organization may
act as a barrier in the way of implementing the position statement. All the workers of the
organization should follow the standards of care and values so that they can overcome the
barriers easily. Although it is reported that, the negative attitudes by the health worker may
affect the implementation of the process. To overcome these barriers, all the health workers
should have adequate knowledge regarding the cultural safety. Inter cultural
misunderstanding also can create barriers. To overcome this, the effective health care
message should be provided. In addition to this, for removing the barriers, more indigenous
health care work forces should be engaged in the care process of the Indigenous people. As it
is reported that, the lack of indigenous work force in the health care facilities in Australia
also creating a barrier in the way of implementation process of the position statements. In
Australia, introduction of Aboriginal Medical Services (AMS) will also reduce the barriers in
the care outcomes in Australia (Aniza & Norhayati, 2016).
Conclusion
Hence, the health literacy and an effective communication between the physicians,
nurses and the patients are factors to improve the quality of health and healthcare. So, it can
be recommended that, it is the duty of the health care professionals to maintain the culturally
competent environment in the health care setting. However, there are various barriers in the
way of implementing the position statement that can restrict the implementation process.

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References
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Lessons for Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 16(1), 6-14.
Armstrong, E., Hersh, D., Hayward, C., & Fraser, J. (2015). Communication disorders after
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Ddhs.org.au. (2019). Danila Dilba Strategic Plan 2017-2022 | Danila Dilba. Retrieved from
https://ddhs.org.au/resources/danila-dilba-strategic-plan-2017-2022
Ddhs.org.au. (2019). History | Danila Dilba. Retrieved from
https://ddhs.org.au/about-us/history
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