Culture Counts: Project background and description

Culture Counts: Best Practices in Community Education in Mental Health and Addiction with Ethnoracial/Ethnocultural Communities

There is significant evidence that health promotion programs are effective in reducing harms associated with drug and alcohol use, and improving the mental health of a population. Yet members of ethnocultural communities have a much lower rate of participation in health promotion / prevention programs than the general population due to systemic and service barriers.

Community readiness and needs assessments conducted in seven communities (Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian Serbian and Tamil) identified alcohol as a serious problem that needed to be addressed with health promotion strategies that integrate cultural and religious norms and values. The Culture Counts Project was developed as a direct response to these needs.

The report, Culture Counts: Best Practices in Community Education in Mental Health And Addiction with Ethnocultural / Ethnoracial Communities, documents the results of the first phase of the project (available in PDF only) and arrived at the following general conclusions:

• Concepts that reflect the predominant culture (e.g. the concept of a “standard drink”) are often not directly transferable to communities with different cultural backgrounds
• Original material, both text and graphics, need to be culturally adapted to reflect the audience’s values and social norms
• Direct translation, which doesn’t take cultural concepts into account, limits the usefulness of health information
• Effective adaptation and translation require extensive testing with the intended audience during all phases of message development
• Program effectiveness also depends on the mode of delivery, which is often culturally specific
• Working in partnership with community groups and/or community-based organizations is the best strategy to ensure effectiveness of health education initiatives

In the second phase of the project, the best practices model guided the adaptation and/or development of public education materials to reflect culturally appropriate messages related to alcohol.

In the final phase of the Culture Counts Project, an on-line resource is being developed. It will map out effective ways to meet the health promotion needs of diverse communities using best practices and culturally sensitive approaches in addiction and mental health community education and knowledge transfer. Research and community experience – including narratives from project partners and service providers who pioneered programs for diverse communities – will inform and guide the resource’s development. The resource is slated to be available on-line by March 2007.

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