One service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women

Background: Consumer participation in primary health care is important in providing quality consumer-focused care but challenging when working with disadvantaged groups of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Women's Health Services (WHS) works with women from over sixty different natio...

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Main Authors: Lee, Susan, Thompson, Sandra, Amorin-Woods, D.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Radcliffe Publishing 2009
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/15582
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author Lee, Susan
Thompson, Sandra
Amorin-Woods, D.
author_facet Lee, Susan
Thompson, Sandra
Amorin-Woods, D.
author_sort Lee, Susan
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: Consumer participation in primary health care is important in providing quality consumer-focused care but challenging when working with disadvantaged groups of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Women's Health Services (WHS) works with women from over sixty different nationalities, including many newly arrived migrants and refugees. New arrivals access a wide range of WHS programs including medical services, counselling, information, community talks and workshops, referral, and outreach, but few ethnic women attended the alcohol and other drug (AOD) services offered by the organisation.Aim: To establish an active consumer reference group to assist understanding and reducing the barriers to AOD services for a heterogeneous disadvantaged group that includes individuals from different cultural, language and educational backgrounds. Results: Leaning heavily on experiences from the mental health field, WHS overcame many practical and philosophical considerations which included: agreeing upon the purpose of the group and how it would operate within the structure of the organisation; the level of English language required by participants for the group to function; issues of resourcing the group; and ensuring an appropriate, workable demographic mix in terms of age, language, and migration experiences. Conclusion: The process and the outcome of establishing a Consumer Reference Group (CRG) in a primary health care setting has been valuable for consumers and health service providers within the organisation.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-155822017-01-30T11:50:39Z One service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women Lee, Susan Thompson, Sandra Amorin-Woods, D. Background: Consumer participation in primary health care is important in providing quality consumer-focused care but challenging when working with disadvantaged groups of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Women's Health Services (WHS) works with women from over sixty different nationalities, including many newly arrived migrants and refugees. New arrivals access a wide range of WHS programs including medical services, counselling, information, community talks and workshops, referral, and outreach, but few ethnic women attended the alcohol and other drug (AOD) services offered by the organisation.Aim: To establish an active consumer reference group to assist understanding and reducing the barriers to AOD services for a heterogeneous disadvantaged group that includes individuals from different cultural, language and educational backgrounds. Results: Leaning heavily on experiences from the mental health field, WHS overcame many practical and philosophical considerations which included: agreeing upon the purpose of the group and how it would operate within the structure of the organisation; the level of English language required by participants for the group to function; issues of resourcing the group; and ensuring an appropriate, workable demographic mix in terms of age, language, and migration experiences. Conclusion: The process and the outcome of establishing a Consumer Reference Group (CRG) in a primary health care setting has been valuable for consumers and health service providers within the organisation. 2009 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/15582 Radcliffe Publishing fulltext
spellingShingle Lee, Susan
Thompson, Sandra
Amorin-Woods, D.
One service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women
title One service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women
title_full One service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women
title_fullStr One service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women
title_full_unstemmed One service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women
title_short One service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women
title_sort one service, many voices: enhancing consumer participation in a primary health service for multicultural women
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/15582