Delivering Health Services for Ethnic Minorities in Regional Australia

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna Moxham ◽  
Shane Pegg
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Client Group ◽  
Professional Health ◽  
Culture And Health ◽  
Care Worker ◽  
Regional Australia ◽  
Diverse Nations

Recent articles in the print media have served to highlight the fact that health services in regional Australia are inadequately servicing the needs of ethnic minorities. Despite an increased awareness of the need for culturally appropriate services in more recent years, Australia, as one of the most ethno-culturally diverse nations in the world, still largely relies on the patriarchal biomedical model of health care, which has a pathogenic approach, focusing on why people fall sick and on treatment, rather than on communication between the client and the professional health care worker. Such practice, while well-intentioned, detracts from the ability of regional health services to adequately service the needs of a culturally diverse client group and, in turn, de-emphasises the clear link which has now been established between culture and health.

scholarly journals Health Care Providers as Agents of Change: Integrating PrEP With Other Sexual and Reproductive Health Services for Adolescent Girls and Young Women

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle O'Malley ◽  
Kristin M. Beima-Sofie ◽  
Stephanie D. Roche ◽  
Elzette Rousseau ◽  
Danielle Travill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Family Planning ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Reproductive Health Services ◽  
Care Worker

Background: Successful integration of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with existing reproductive health services will require iterative learning and adaptation. The interaction between the problem-solving required to implement new interventions and health worker motivation has been well-described in the public health literature. This study describes structural and motivational challenges faced by health care providers delivering PrEP to adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) alongside other SRH services, and the strategies used to overcome them.Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with HCWs from two demonstration projects delivering PrEP to AGYW alongside other SRH services. The Prevention Options for the Women Evaluation Research (POWER) is an open label PrEP study with a focus on learning about PrEP delivery in Kenyan and South African family planning, youth mobile services, and public clinics at six facilities. PrIYA focused on PrEP delivery to AGYW via maternal and child health (MCH) and family planning (FP) clinics in Kenya across 37 facilities. IDIs and FGDs were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a combination of inductive and deductive methods.Results: We conducted IDIs with 36 participants and 8 FGDs with 50 participants. HCW described a dynamic process of operationalizing PrEP delivery to better respond to patient needs, including modifying patient flow, pill packaging, and counseling. HCWs believed the biggest challenge to sustained integration and scaling of PrEP for AGYW would be lack of health care worker motivation, primarily due to a misalignment of personal and professional values and expectations. HCWs frequently described concerns of PrEP provision being seen as condoning or promoting unprotected sex among young unmarried, sexually active women. Persuasive techniques used to overcome these reservations included emphasizing the social realities of HIV risk, health care worker professional identities, and vocational commitments to keeping young women healthy.Conclusion: Sustained scale-up of PrEP will require HCWs to value and prioritize its incorporation into daily practice. As with the provision of other SRH services, HCWs may have moral reservations about providing PrEP to AGYW. Strategies that strengthen alignment of HCW personal values with professional goals will be important for strengthening motivation to overcome delivery challenges.

The ethics of care: Role obligations and moderate partiality in health care

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Nortvedt ◽  
Marit Helene Hem ◽  
Helge Skirbekk
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Ethics Of Care ◽  
Relational Networks ◽  
Professional Health ◽  
Qualified Individual ◽  
Normative Significance ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
Care Worker ◽  
Moral Ontology

This article contends that an ethics of care has a particular moral ontology that makes it suitable to argue for the normative significance of relational responsibilities within professional health care. This ontology is relational. It means that moral choices always have to account for the web of relationships, the relational networks and responsibilities that are an essential part of particular moral circumstances. Given this ontology, the article investigates the conditions for health care professionals to be partial and to act on the basis of particular responsibilities to their patients. We will argue that priorities could be partial in three ways: first, because there may be exceptional circumstances that allow for giving priority to one patient over another; second, because the integrity of the patient and a health care worker may be connected in special ways; and, finally, even if impartiality is essential, the institutional basis of health care must always give ample space for an ethically qualified individual and personal care for patients. Even if difficult priorities may be necessary, the conditions of institutional health care should always seek to create the prerequisites for nurses and doctors to administer proper care.

Young people from culturally diverse backgrounds and their use of services for sexual and reproductive health needs: a structured scoping review

Sexual Health ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica R. Botfield ◽  
Christy E. Newman ◽  
Anthony B. Zwi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Health ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds

Sexual and reproductive health needs are global health, development and human rights priorities, essential to the wellbeing of individuals, couples and families. Despite widespread recognition of this, young people, including those from culturally diverse backgrounds in wealthy nations such as Australia, remain largely hidden to, and underserved by, sexual and reproductive healthcare services. A scoping review was undertaken to describe the range of research on sexual and reproductive health among culturally diverse young people in Australia, in order to identify gaps in the literature. This comprised a systematic literature search and key informant consultations, followed by descriptive thematic analysis of the included literature. One hundred and twenty papers were deemed eligible for inclusion, and findings are presented as three separate analyses. The first provides an overview of four dimensions identified in the literature: (i) cultural diversity; (ii) the resettlement experiences of migrant communities; (iii) the sexual and reproductive health needs of these communities; and (iv) the practices of health services in this field. The second explores what is known from the literature about culturally diverse young people’s needs for, use of, and engagement with services for sexual and reproductive health, while the third identifies two knowledge gaps: (1) the perspectives of culturally diverse young people regarding sexual and reproductive health and health care; and (2) the engagement of culturally diverse young people with sexual and reproductive health services. New directions for a research agenda on sexual and reproductive health care for culturally diverse young people in Australia are proposed, based on the identified knowledge gaps.

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