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Iraj Poureslami, PhD Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), UBC

Cross-Cultural Early Childhood Development – A Proposal to Develop Cultural Competent Model for BC. Iraj Poureslami, PhD Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), UBC. Research team. Iraj Poureslami, HELP/CPHPR - UBC Clyde Hertzman, HELP – UBC Kelly NG, S.U.C.C.E.S.S, Vancouver.

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Iraj Poureslami, PhD Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), UBC

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  1. Cross-Cultural Early Childhood Development – A Proposal to Develop Cultural Competent Model for BC Iraj Poureslami, PhD Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), UBC

  2. Research team • Iraj Poureslami, HELP/CPHPR - UBC • Clyde Hertzman, HELP – UBC • Kelly NG, S.U.C.C.E.S.S, Vancouver

  3. Early Childhood Development: A New Field of Global Focus “Early child development (ECD)* is a major determinant of health, well-being, and learning skills across the balance of the life course”WHO. * ECD is not a universally agreed upon concept

  4. Newcomer children’s health status: Parents’ culture & language • Under-use of preventive health screening • Under-diagnosis and poor treatment of health problems; might be due to: Institutional issues, as well as: • Parents’ linguistic and cultural isolation (cultural and institutional issues) • Parents’ lack of knowledge about and experience with the new healthcare system in Canada • Parents’ attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, and practices in regard to health and development

  5. Culture as a intervening factor in Health • Cultural differences can and do present major barriers to health and health care interventions. This is especially true when health practitioners overlook, misinterpret, stereotype or otherwise mishandle their clients whose culture might be different from them in their assessment, intervention, treatment, and evaluations.

  6. Culture & health outcome • Strong evidence suggests an association between cultural diversity and health outcome. For instance, Aboriginals and minority groups are among the poorest in terms of health and access to health care in Canada.

  7. Vancouver Studies – Since 2003 • Assessing the Relationship between Parents’ Underemployment Status and Children’s Mental & Emotional Health among Professional Immigrants in the Greater Vancouver Area (GVA) • Effect of Father Involvement on Children’s Behavioral & Emotional Health among South & South-East Asian Immigrants in GVA • Measuring Health Literacy in Newcomer Parents in GVA: Impact on Children’s Health Patterns & Health Service Utilization • Community Perspectives on Early Childhood Development (ECD) among Ethno-cultural Groups in the GVA: A Cross-cultural Comparative Study • Bridging Immigrants and Refugees with ECD Services - Partnership Research in the Development of an Effective Service Model

  8. Suggestions by key-informants & community members - Cultural competent services • Family’s and community’s needs, priorities, and challenges must beaddressed to make EDC services culturally relevant and effective • Involvement of family (parents, grandparents and other family members) in program planning and delivery • ECD services should be accessible to the community (physically, linguistically, culturally, and financially) • Parents need access to formal and informal support (extended support network) to help children use care/ECD services effectively

  9. What we’ve found(from our previous studies) • Language, culture, and lack of information are the three major factors that prevents parents in many ethnocultural communities in the GVA from accessing ECD services. • The newcomer parents are often isolated and find it difficult to integrate with the broader community. • There is a critical gap in current knowledge; namely the socio-cultural and economic factors influencing ECD among newcomer communities in BC.

  10. Summary of Conclusions from Vancouver studies • Language/communication and culture are important barriers to access and use the ECD services • Participatory and culturally-appropriate health programs and interventions are necessary • Service providers need to improve communication skills • Newcomers and minority groups should be included in creation and delivery of ECD-related info & services • Health professionals and providers from ethno-cultural communities should be included in care system • Cross-cultural and knowledge exchange opportunities for newcomers and minority groups should be developed

  11. What are our Goals? To employ a participatory, community-based approach to: 1) Develop culturally-competent conceptual framework, strategies, and measurement tools to address ECD services need by newcomer groups; 2) Assess socio-cultural & environmental determinants of health and development of children in BC‘s newcomer communities; and 3) Develop and transfer knowledge into action (e.g., research, policy, and programs) aiming to improve health and development outcomes among children of newcomer communities in BC.

  12. Objectives of our ECD Model • Build upon the current partnership with ECD service providers in conducting a research on the needs of newcomers for ECD services, • Create new knowledge regarding the current available ECD programs, as well as the full range of issues and challenges affecting child health and development in BC, • Build research capacity and community-university-policy alliances, and contribute to the development of an integrated research-service agenda on child health and development among newcomer communities, • Develop a ECD service model with interest and direct involvement of different stakeholders, e.g., child health-related decision-makers and their staff, researchers, educators, school counsellors, child psychologists, service providers, and individuals working in the areas of family functioning, parent involvement, and children’s health and development in newcomer communities.

  13. What we have done so far? • We carried out our current research in four integrated steps: • We studied different existing services, models and measurement tools for ECD programs in BC & Canada; • We conducted community and key-informants focus groups and in-person interviews to develop a new Model which would be appropriate for selected newcomer communities. We plan to: • Test and validate the Model through a large-scale, qualitative, community-based study among selected key-informants and newcomer communities in 2008 and early 2009; • Disseminate and Evaluate the findings in 2009. The long term outcome of the proposed Model would help the existing service delivery systems/programs, both in Lower mainland and beyond to enhance their cultural competency in the provision of ECD services to ethnocultural communities

  14. Thank you For further information, please contact: Dr. Iraj Poureslami, PhD Research Associate Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), UBC (604) 827-5550 pouresla@interchange.ubc.ca / pouresla@telus.net

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