Cultural Awareness for General Practice

1. Cultural Awareness for General Practice Implementing a RACGP response to the Cultural Awareness training requirements of the Indigenous Practice Incentive Jill Dixon National Advisor

2. RACGP commitment To work together to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

3. Establishment of National Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is one of Australia’s highest health priorities. RACGP is committed to raising awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health needs. As a result, the RACGP National Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health has been formed to help ‘close the gap’.

4. National Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Established February 2010 • Six staff: • Manager • National Advisor • Medical Advisor • Aboriginal Health Projects Coordinator • Aboriginal Health Policy Officer • Office Administrator

5. Faculty Board

6. Faculty Chairperson Dr Brad Murphy, a remote area solo GP in central Queensland and an Aboriginal man from the Kamilaroi people of northwest NSW. “The health issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are important to me for personal reasons. These are my people and my family. The disparities in health outcomes in remote communities hit close to home for me.”

7. Faculty initiatives • RACGP position statement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health • Interpretive Guide to RACGP standards for ACCHSs • Cultural safety training scoping study • Warfarin Flipchart • With NACCHO, review and update 2005 National Guide to preventive health assessment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

8. Cultural awareness education project • Funded by DoHA • Purpose: • Draft and communicate a set of cultural awareness education criteria that meet QA&CPD standards • Develop and make available RACGP online activity for cultural awareness education that will meet requirements of Practice Incentives Program Indigenous Health Incentive

9. Cultural Awareness Cultural awareness education is usually the first building block toward cultural safety. It helps participants to extend their knowledge about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture, explore attitudes and values that can influence their perceptions and behaviours, better understand some of the key issues facing Indigenous people and the health professionals who work with them and explore ways to be more culturally aware.

10. Cultural Safety Cultural safety training helps participants understand what is needed to develop ‘an environment that is safe for people: where there is no assault, challenge or denial of their identity, of who they are and what they need.’[1] It usually involves participants identifying and planning improvements to their cultural safety practices, assisted by local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community representatives. [1]Williams R. Cultural Safety – What does it mean for our work practice? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 1999; 23:213-4

11. Our cultural awareness orientation activity • Online • 3 hours, with 3x1 hour sessions: Session 1: Background and Context Session 2: Current Experience Session 3: Ideas for Action • Available free of charge to GPs and practice teams • Will meet PIP Indigenous Health Incentive requirements • For diverse group of learners

12. To assist participants to: • enhance their awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and current health issues • reflect on issues relating to health service delivery to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people • consider appropriate improvements to their cultural safety practices • engage appropriately with local communities

13. Session 1: Background and Context • Key moments in history • Key policy influences • Current policies and initiatives • Key elements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture - and acknowledgement of diversity

14. Session 2: Current Experience • Social and emotional determinants of health • Protective factors • Chronic disease • Accessibility – physical, financial, cultural • ‘Case studies’ – ACCHSs and mainstream general practices

15. Session 3: Ideas for Action • Identification • Implications for interpersonal relationships and (verbal and nonverbal) communication • Accessibility • Engagement with local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities

16. Development process • GP writers recruited from different regions • Aboriginal coordinating writers • Faculty Board as review panel • Media elements • Interactive • Link to cultural safety training

17. Educational criteria • To be developed for use in addition to QA&CPD criteria for adjudication of cultural awareness education • NACCHO’s National Standards for Cultural Safety Training to inform cultural safety training criteria

18. Longer term aims • Advocate for culturally appropriate health delivery systems that will improve health outcomes for Indigenous Australians • Work with key stakeholders (AGPN, AIDA, NACCHO, Affiliates, government, educational institutions) to achieve this outcome

19. Questions? Comments?