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Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Women

  Contents: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) women are those whose first language is not English and/or who were born in a country other than Australia. They may have migrated to Australia, or they might be refugees or asylum seekers. The ACT has a significant population of CALD women; at the time of the 2006 Census 7.6 percent of ACT women did not speak English at home despite the fact that for women living in the ACT English language skills are consistently acknowledged to be a huge advantage in settling in Australia, and is considered one of the biggest barriers to achieving social connectedness, access to health services and employment (Brewer, 2009). In the current health system, finding the time to seek health information and services is difficult enough; finding it in the right languages and delivered in a way that is sensitive to cultural and personal needs is even more difficult.

Women from CALD backgrounds, especially women from new and emerging groups, are at greater risk of poor health and wellbeing than the mainstream population. WCHM research has shown that CALD women in the ACT are “at risk of marginalisation and isolation socially, culturally, politically and economically” and have an overall reduced standard of living which is impacting on their health and wellbeing (Maslen, 2008). While this group is vulnerable in all regions, in the ACT their situation is exacerbated by the fact that the communities are smaller and geographically more spread out.

Barriers to accessing services and achieving social inclusion in the ACT include language, transport, immigration concerns, discrimination and racism, domestic violence, addiction, lack of cultural understanding and sensitivity by mainstream services, being unfamiliar with services and systems, trauma and mental health concerns, and poor recognition of prior learning and qualifications (Brewer, 2009).

Ethnic groups which are particularly vulnerable are those who have entered under the Humanitarian Program, as they can be suffering the effects of trauma and have little or no English skills. This contributes to the magnification of a variety of complex support needs and issues, with the additional risk of falling through gaps in service provision.

Newly arrived communities are faced with many difficulties in accessing effective health care when settling in ACT. Humanitarian and refugee entrants from Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia comprise increasing numbers of new and emerging communities recently settling in the ACT. They are often more visibly different in appearance and culture to more established migrant groups and may face more immediate barriers to effective settlement (FECCA, 2009).

Cultural, language and financial constraints, lack of awareness of available services and lack of understanding by health providers of the complex cultural concerns of refugees can all contribute to limiting access to health care. Women are particularly at risk of suboptimal health care due to the impact of these factors combined with the effect of resettlement stresses and their ability to assimilate and establish connections.

The experience of newly arrived individuals can easily become one of social isolation given that “social networks may be deficient and social relations may either be disrupted or devalued in the host country” (Stewart et al., 2008). The social isolation that is inherent in so many refugee experiences creates real problems in being able to connect with services. Social support networks are vital in helping to prevent disease, facilitate recovery and adapt to ongoing illnesses. Indeed, a woman’s role within her social network can affect her coping processes (Kokanovic and Manderson, 2006).

While migrants generally have some time to prepare for the transition to their host country, and may have financial resources behind them, refugees do not. They are escaping war or persecution and the vast majority do not possess adequate finances or personal identification documents (Stewart et al., 2008). Consequently, refugees often experience difficulty in their pursuit of education and employment in their host country, compounding isolation and marginalisation.

It is for these reasons that WCHM has remained mindful of the importance of the social determinants of health and of illness, and recognises in its work the significant adverse impact on health and wellbeing of social isolation and marginalisation. WCHM’s work in this area is focussed on developing strategies to enable CALD women to connect/reconnect into community and build networks.

By focussing on CALD women WCHM hopes to develop a profile of women from CALD communities and the issues impacting on their social connectedness and wellbeing; raise awareness of issues impacting on the social connectedness and wellbeing of women from CALD communities; and advocate for initiatives that will promote inclusion.

By focussing on improving their access to women-sensitive health practitioners and services WCHM hopes to help develop increased knowledge about the factors that act as barriers to social inclusion and which impact adversely on CALD women, particularly women who are recently arrived to Australia or first generation Australians, and to put specific policy proposals and advocacy initiatives in place to increase their social inclusion and improve their health and wellbeing.

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Current WCHM Projects

empower

From research with marginalised women in the ACT (including older women and women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds) WCHM has found that many of these women feel that they are not involved in or listened to about their needs in either Government or service provider consultations or in the design and implementation of programs and services. In addition, very few are involved in boards of community organisations or private organisations. For many of them this stems from a lack of skills and understanding and confidence and also the lack of commitment from ACT departments, community organisations and others to include women from diverse backgrounds on their boards, committees or consultation mechanisms (apart from ACT Health with its consumer involvement on key committees). Many of the courses currently available to teach people about being on boards or committees are not suitable because they assume a certain skill and understanding level, focus on people with technical skills rather than those with lived experience and are not targeted to specific groups of women that are typically excluded.

In 2011 WCHM secured funding through the ACT Women’s Grants Program 2010/11 for a project titled empower: Building opportunities for mature women and multicultural women in leadership and decision making roles in the ACT Community. WCHM is partnering with Health Care Consumers Association and Zonta Breakfast Club of Canberra to develop and deliver suitable training modules targeted at these two separate groups—older women and CALD women. The project also aims to connect project participants with representatives from ACT and Commonwealth Departments, private and community organisations to facilitate mentoring, trainee board positions, and other opportunities. Please contact WCHM on 6290 2166 or via email on admin@wchm.org.au for more information or if you would like to participate in the project.

CALD Women's Network

After the release of the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Women in the Australian Capital Territory report in 2009, WCHM held a forum with service providers who work with clients from CALD backgrounds to discuss how the report’s recommendations could be moved forward. This report can be viewed here. One finding from the forum was that there are very few CALD women in leadership roles in the ACT and that, because of this, there is a wider lack of representation to government and community on CALD women’s issues. In response to this, forum participants suggested that there should be more collaboration across the different agencies that work with and represent CALD women, in order to strengthen representation, share information, and consolidate resources in the interests of improving health and wellbeing outcomes for CALD women.

The ACT CALD Women’s Network emerged from this recommendation. It is a group of organisations that have an interest in the issues that affect women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in the ACT. These organisations use the network to work together to advocate on behalf of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, in order to influence local policy and service delivery. Ultimately, the CALD Women’s Network aims to:
  • Raise awareness of the issues that CALD women face in the ACT
  • Collaborate and consult on a review of the access and equity issues that women from CALD backgrounds encounter in the ACT
  • Ensure that the views and concerns of women from CALD backgrounds in the ACT are heard
  • Identify opportunities and develop strategies to address these concerns
  • Share knowledge around the key areas of health, leadership, prevention of violence against women, ageing, and employment/workforce participation
The CALD Women’s Network meets quarterly, and its member organisations are:

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Past WCHM Projects

Research Report: The views of ACT Women from CALD Backgrounds about Health and Wellbeing Information

In September 2011 WCHM published the companion report It goes with the Territory! The Views of ACT Women from CALD Backgrounds about Health and Wellbeing Information. This report presents the findings and views of the women from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds who participated in WCHM’s health and wellbeing information research in 2009, and identifies the major themes and the barriers facing these women in accessing the health and wellbeing information they need.

The findings showed that CALD women are proactive in seeking out health and wellbeing information: seeking it from a variety of sources, in a variety of media, on a variety of topics. Yet CALD women can face specific cultural and linguistic barriers that make obtaining the health and wellbeing information they need difficult, including not being able to access culturally appropriate services or information in languages other than English.

General health and wellbeing information provided in a place that CALD women frequent, which includes relevant contact details that allow access to more personalised information, will ensure that ACT CALD women have access to the good quality health and wellbeing information they need. Ensuring that CALD women can access the health and wellbeing information they require in a culturally appropriate and understandable way enables them to fully engage with health decision-making for themselves and their families. This involves services knowing the major cultural groups in the ACT and taking time to understand their particular barriers and enablers to accessing information.

Research Report: Sudanese Women in the ACT

In recent years Australia has accepted an increasing number of immigrants and humanitarian refugees from Sudan, largely due to internal conflicts and widespread poverty within the country. In fact, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006) the Sudanese community is one of the fastest growing groups in Australia.

WCHM commissioned research on the access and utilisation of health services by southern Sudanese women in the ACT as a way of understanding the nature of the challenges and issues they may face when seeking health care and to help WCHM propose health care, service delivery and policy solutions that will respect the southern Sudanese women’s values and improve their health and wellbeing and their access to health care.

The findings of this research will be published soon. If you would like more information about this project, please contact WCHM by emailing ed@wchm.org.au or phoning (02) 62902166.

Cultural Awareness Training - New and emerging communities

Meeting the communities growing expectations and being responsive to changing community needs is a challenge for all community services and government agencies. Feedback on service quality and issues around access, especially for vulnerable groups, are an integral part in the evolving nature of community services.

The findings of the WCHM report Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Women in the ACT: Enablers and Barriers to Achieving Social Connectedness identified that ACT services that work with CALD women need to be more sensitive, skilled and well informed about issues facing women from new and emerging cultural groups. WCHM hosted a forum in May 2009 for ACT service providers to discuss moving forward with the research findings. Two key priorities were identified that needed addressing:
  • The Need for Cultural Sensitivity—While broader cultural awareness training available in Canberra was important, what ACT services really wanted was culture-specific information about the groups they were most likely to encounter in their work, especially with regard to information about emerging new communities
  • Discrimination and Racism—It was also widely agreed that CALD women continue to face discrimination and racism. One of the main reasons identified was the small number of CALD women in leadership roles, which led to a lack of positive role models for other CALD women in the community
Funding for a project to address these issues was provided by CIT under a Community Skills/Training Support Grant to:
  • Build the cultural capacity of ACT service providers by presenting cultural awareness training with a specific focus on gender differences and the needs of women from new and emerging cultural communities in Canberra
  • Expand the capacity of identified women within the CALD community by mentoring them to develop useful skills such as public speaking, and the development and delivery of training sessions.
This was a unique program based on the lived experiences of the refugee women and communities taking ownership of their culture, with the intention that this approach would add value to how ACT services engage with their communities.

The development of this program for training CALD women to be leaders within their communities and deliver culture and gender-sensitive information to ACT service providers has the potential to create sustainable system-wide improvements with demonstrably effective strategies for building women’s capacity to access health and wellbeing information and support that meets their needs.

The Cultural Awareness Training about the Southern Sudanese community and the Mon community gave ACT community service workers an opportunity to listen to the lived experiences of women in order to help them better understand the issues in delivering more culturally sensitive services to these communities and how to work more effectively with them.

Four key areas of content (known as the 4 C’s) were covered:
  • CULTURE— Their country of origin, ethnic diversity, religion, social and traditional family structures, health and education
  • CONFLICT—The political conflict that led to them leaving their homelands
  • CAMPS— Their life and the issues they faced in the refugee camps
  • CANBERRA—Their experiences in the community in Canberra, and the resettlement considerations and challenges including language and communication, health, and issues affecting access to community services, education and employment

This information is currently being redeveloped into online fact sheets for wider use. For further information please contact WCHM on 6290 2166, or email admin@wchm.org.au

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Women in the ACT: Enablers and Barriers to Achieving Social Connectedness

Despite evidence that health and wellbeing is impacted upon by gender, there is little documented knowledge in relation to women’s health and wellbeing in the ACT, and even less on marginalised sub-groups of women. It was for this reason that the report Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Women in the ACT: Enablers and Barriers to Achieving Social Connectedness was commissioned by WCHM in 2009 to develop a profile of CALD women in the ACT, and to determine the factors that are contributing to their levels of social connectedness and wellbeing (or lack thereof).

The report documented the themes from the research which were identified as factors that influence CALD women’s social connectedness and wellbeing. These were immigration and emerging communities; language concerns; domestic violence; drugs and/or alcohol; legal issues; isolation; the need for cultural sensitivity; children and child protection; loss of qualifications and careers; discrimination and racism; limited transport; unfamiliarity with available services; mental health; and trauma. The report is available to read in our Reports and Publications section, which you can access here.

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Other Research and Reports

ACT Multicultural Strategy 2010-2013

The ACT is strengthened when people of multicultural backgrounds have equal access to opportunities for social, economic and political inclusion. This is achieved through protective laws, enabling policies and community connectedness. This is the intent behind the ACT Multicultural Strategy 2010-2013, which was created in consultation with hundreds of individuals representing Canberra’s diverse population and borne out of the Multicultural Summit in August 2008. (http://www.dhcs.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/104689/Final_ACT_Multicultural_Strategy_2010_-2013_25_Nov.pdf)

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Useful Links

Australian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Alliance (AIRWA) (www.airwa.org)                               AIRWA is a strong advocacy voice for Immigrant and Refugee Women; their mission is “to represent immigrant and refugee women across Australia, ensuring that their circumstances, views and concerns are brought to the attention of government in a timely manner and are included in government policy”. AIRWA is a partnership between the Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia (NIRWA) and The Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia's Women's Committee (FECCA).

Canberra Multicultural Community Forum (CMCF) (www.cmcf.org.au)
The CMCF was established to promote the common interests and articulate the purpose and direction of the multicultural community in the ACT. The Forum aims to: Represent the needs, aspirations and achievements of the multicultural community, especially those persons who have experienced the refugee and migration processes; enhance and enrich the wellbeing of the multicultural community as part of the broader community; foster a spirit of cooperation and harmony amongst ethnic communities within the broader community; embrace a culturally diverse society and to promote a socially cohesive society; promote and address the issues surrounding the multicultural community within the context of the Australian community

Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia (FECCA) (www.fecca.org.au)
FECCA is the national peak body representing Australians from CALD backgrounds. They provide advocacy, develop policy and promote issues on behalf of their constituency to government and the broader community. FECCA supports multiculturalism, community harmony, social justice and the rejection of all forms of discrimination and racism.

Multicultural Women’s Advocacy (MWA) (www.multiculturalwomen.org.au)
MWA is an ACT advocacy, advisory, and lobby group that focuses on the needs of women from CALD backgrounds. MWA engages in providing information, referral, and support to CALD women seeking opportunities to further develop their capabilities and achieving their lives’ goals.

Multicultural Centre for Women's Health (MCWH) (http://www.mcwh.com.au/)
MCWH is a women's health organisation which is committed to improving the health of immigrant and refugee women around Australia. They provide national leadership and excellence in multilingual health education, advocacy, training, and research with specific expertise in sexual, reproductive, occupational and mental health.

Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women Australia Inc (NIRWA) (www.nirwa.org.au)
NIRWA is an independent National Network which represents and advocates on behalf of immigrant and refugee women living in Australia. Based on shared values and principles, the network aims to become a unified voice, to raise issues and needs that affect immigrant and refugee women to governments and all sections of the Australian community.

ACT Office of Multicultural Affairs (www.dhcs.act.gov.au/multicultural)
The Office of Multicultural Affairs provides strategic advice to the ACT Minister for Multicultural Affairs on issues affecting people from CALD backgrounds.

Department of Immigration and Citizenship (www.immi.gov.au)

The purpose of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) is managing the entry and settlement of new Australians.

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