This year, the Centre for Culture, Ethnicity, and Health (CEH) celebrated three decades of enhancing the health and wellbeing of Australia’s multicultural communities. Over the past year, we’ve reflected on our journey, significant milestones, and our ongoing impact to multicultural health.
Bringing Together Stakeholders for Multicultural Health
One of our proudest moments was hosting the Diversity in Health Conference in 2010. Former CEH manager Michal Morris recalled, “The conference had multiple themes that allowed workers from across the country, whether in health or community services, to engage in meaningful discussions on complex multicultural issues. Even today, people come up to me to talk about that conference and its impact.”
Empowering Professionals with Resources in Over 130 Languages
Health Translations, a vital initiative CEH launched ten years ago, now houses over 30,000 resources in 130 languages across written and audio-visual formats. Former manager Bernice Murphy reflected, “The widespread use of Health Translations is something to behold. We believe it is the largest collection of its type in the world.”
Leading in Cultural Competence and Health Literacy Training
CEH has been at the forefront of cultural competence and health literacy training, adapting our methods to meet the workforce’s evolving needs. Natalija Nesvadba spoke about CEH’s pioneering health literacy course, designed to help organizations improve service access for all communities. “The course’s hands-on approach, which included project work, allowed us to implement the theory directly in our workplaces. Eventually, we collaborated with CEH to create an in-house health literacy course tailored to our needs.”
Expanding training through eLearning and online workshops
The COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point in CEH’s training offerings. Bernice Murphy highlighted the shift to eLearning and online workshops explaining, “As lockdowns began, online training became essential. Suddenly, workers could attend training without travel time and at a time that suited them.”
However, for many communities they were not “online ready”. CEH’s Multicultural Health Support Service (MHSS) and other programs dedicated time to helping communities access online education. And 3 years later most of the community education has returned to their preferred face to face format.
Co-Designing Culturally Responsive Campaigns and Education
The pandemic also highlighted the importance of culturally tailored health communications. “COVID gave new voices the opportunity to share what their communities needed,” Bernice noted MHSS program has long focused on delivering health campaigns that prevent blood-borne viruses, STIs, and HIV by working closely with communities to align health education with cultural needs.
During the pandemic, MHSS launched the Catch-Up Care Campaign to remind people of the importance of regular health checks, even amid the challenges of COVID-19. Reflecting on this time, Bernice said, “Supporting the team through Zoom was challenging, but it reinforced that ‘one size does not fit all’ in health messaging. We hope our efforts empowered community leaders to deliver health information in ways that were most meaningful and actionable for their communities.”