Indigenous and Intercultural Health
This subject will help you to develop introductory level skills and knowledge that underpin culturally competent healthcare. This is particularly important for working with Australian Indigenous peoples, where illness and mortality are generally known to be far worse than for non-Indigenous Australians. When you have successfully completed this subject, you will understand some important ways to help provide good health and social care to Indigenous and other Australian cultures.
Learning Objectives
- Explain Intercultural Health Competence by assessing your own strengths and improvement areas
- Explain how culture, history and demography influence health and healthcare encounters
- Develop healthcare related communication skills appropriate to a range of cultural groups and situations
- Identify how human rights, professional responsibility and community development underpin Intercultural Health Competence
- Same as 1-4 above focusing on Indigenous Health Competency
- Apply and self-evaluate these learning objectives by applying them to an intercultural community-based setting
Assessment
The following exercises, activities and assignments are used to assess your learning outcomes, based on the formal learning objectives for the subject:
Topics
All topics include themes of cultural respect and safety; the human right to access quality healthcare; a multidisciplinary approach that recognises the need for interprofessional attitudes, knowledge and skills; and social determinants approach to promoting intercultural health and wellbeing.
- Health & Australian Cultures - ‘Culture-General’ concepts which are applied to case examples across several cultural groups.
- Intercultural Health Competency
- The Australian Context: Identity, Power & Relationships
- Culture as Communication
- Human Rights & Professional Roles
- Indigenous Health & Well-being - 'Culture-Specific', and focuses on Indigenous health.
- Developing Indigenous Health Competency
- Applying Indigenous Health Communication Competency
- History, Demography and Indigenous Health
- Human Rights in Indigenous Health
- Community-Based Project - Integrate prior intercultural learning through an applied Community Focused Project
- Integrating prior learning (from Modules 1 and 2)
- Applying prior learning (from Modules 1 and 2 via the Community Focused Project)
- Reviewing prior learning (from Modules 1 and 2 incl. the Community Focused Project)
- Case studies - Requiring active collaboration across different health and social care professions.
Communications
This subject development is led by Nick Stone for La Trobe University's School of Nursing.