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Culture Counts: Resources - Ethnocultural Communities / Cultural Competence

Culture Counts:  A Guide to Best Practices for Developing Health Promotion Initiatives in Mental Health and Substance Use with Ethnocultural Communities

On this page:

Case Stories/Examples

  • Title: Regent Park Youth Media Arts Center
  • Web Host: CatchDaFlava.com (FOCUS)
  • Country: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: The Regent Park Youth Media Arts Center provides community youth with a variety of ways to express themselves and address health issues through the arts.

 

  • Title: Heart Health ESL Curriculum Resource
  • Author: Toronto Public Health
  • Web Host: Toronto.ca (City of Toronto web site)
  • Country: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Example of how to mix health promotion with language learning.

 

  • Title: Photo-novella--“Gambling”
  • Author: Antoine Dérose, et al.
  • Web Host: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: PDF
  • Description: One of a series of photo-novellas on mental health and addiction issues published by CAMH. The photo-novella is one way to use pictures to help convey information.

 

  • Title: Self-help booklet—“Alone in Canada”
  • Web Host: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: PDFs in 18 languages; also available in print.
  • Description: Example of the “personal development” health promotion strategy.

 

  • Title: “Wrap it Right” AIDS Prevention Campaign
  • Author: Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention
  • Web Host: Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention
  • Country: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: English-language health promotion posters created by and for the South Asian community. This is an example of cultural adaptation without translation—note the use of models and cultural references that reflect the South Asian community.

 

  • Title: One NESB size does not fit all! What makes a health promotion campaign “culturally appropriate”
  • Author: Margo Moore, Di Lane and Anne Connolly
  • Web Host: Multicultural Mental Health Australia
  • Country: Australia
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Describes lessons learned from developing a health promotion initiative on domestic violence in multicultural communities.

 

  • Title: Cultural Adaptation of "Exercise: A Guide from the National Institute on Aging"
  • Author: National Institute on Aging
  • Web Host: The Media Network, Inc.
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Brief discussion of the process used to culturally adapt and translate an exercise guide for the Hispanic community.

 

 

  • Title: “Whakaitia te Whakawhiu i te Tangata
  • Author: Like Minds
  • Web Host: Like Minds (New Zealand Ministry of Health)
  • Country: New Zealand
  • Format: PDF
  • Description: This fact sheet about mental illness and stigma for the Maori community in New Zealand includes stories in their own words of community members who are living with mental illness.

 

  • Title: Health Women, Healthy Communities/Mujer Sana, Comunidad Sana
  • Author: Health Women, Healthy Communities/Mujer Sana, Comunidad Sana
  • Web Host: Health Women, Healthy Communities/Mujer Sana, Comunidad Sana
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: This project’s goal is to “test an innovative, participatory model for better access to cancer information, screening, and preventive health care for ethnoracial minority women, starting with one ethnic minority community (Hispanic) in one urban area (Ottawa).” This section of the web site describes the development of the project and its outcomes.

 

  • Title: What Works! Putting Community Issues on the Policy Agenda
  • Author: Susan Lilley
  • Web Host: Public Health Agency of Canada – Atlantic Region
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: PDF
  • Description: Eight stories of community-based projects that “either contribute to the
  • development of healthy public policy or increase community capacity for policy work.”

Cultural Competence

  • Title: Ethnic Minority Neighborhood Outreach
  • Author: American Health Decisions
  • Web Host: Civic Practices Network (CPN)
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: “This guide is aimed at uncovering strategies for including diverse ethnic groups in a range of community-based initiatives.”

 

  • Title: Cultural Awareness Tool: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Mental Health
  • Author: Elizabeth Seah, et al.
  • Web Host: Multicultural Mental Health Australia
  • Country: Australia
  • Format: PDF
  • Description: This tool is intended for use in clinical settings, but many sections have general application for exploring and gaining an understanding of different cultural ideas about mental health.

 

  • Title: Working on Common Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges
  • Author: Marcelle E. DuPraw and Marya Axner
  • Web Host: PBS - Toward a More Perfect Union in an Age of Diversity
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: A look at the ways our culture may affect the way we communicate, handle conflict, complete tasks, make decisions, discuss private matters and learn.

 

  • Title: National Center for Cultural Competence
  • Web Host: Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: This site has many different types of information on developing cultural competence in health and mental health care.

 

  • Title: Multicultural Toolkit – Toolkit for Cross-Cultural Collaboration
  • Author: Candia Elliot et al
  • Web Host: Awesome Library
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: This toolkit is aimed at developing cultural competence in American mainstream organizations, but has useful discussions of cultural differences and ways to bridge them anywhere.

 

 

  • Title: Anthropology in the clinic: The problem of cultural competency and how to fix it.
  • Author: A. Kleinman and P. Benson.
  • Web Host: PLoS Med [2006 3(10): e294]
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: This journal article considers the problems that can arise when cultural competence principles in a clinical setting. Includes some case studies illustrating cultural differences in perception of mental health problems.

 

  • Title: Cultural Profiles Project
  • Author: AMNI Centre of Social Work
  • Web Host: University of Toronto/Citizenship and Immigration Canada
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: HTML, PDF (also available in French at http://www.cp-pc.ca/french/index.html)
  • Description: “Each cultural profile provides an overview of life and customs in the profiled country. While the profile provides insight into some customs, it does not cover all facets of life, and the customs described may not apply in equal measure to all newomers from the profiled country.”

 

  • Title: CultureMed
  • Author: Jacquelyne Coughlan
  • Web Host: State University of New York
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Online bibliography of culture and health issues.

 

  • Title: Exploring Cross-Cultural Communication
  • Author: University at Albany, School of Public Health.
  • Web Host: University at Albany, School of Public Health.
  • Country: New York State, USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Self-guided tutorial on how health issues are viewed in different cultures. Free for 45 days with registration.

Equity and Ethnocultural Communities

 

  • Title: Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism
  • Author: Canadian Heritage
  • Web Host: Canadian Heritage
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: HTML; also available in French at http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/multi/plan_action_plan/tous_all/index_f.cfm
  • Description: Outlines present state of inequities in Canada stemming from racism and discrimination, and policies aimed at addressing them.

 

  • Title: Community Engagement Report: Multicultural Mental Health Liaison Program
  • Author: Margreth Tolson
  • Web Host: Vancouver Coastal Health
  • Country: British Columbia, Canada
  • Format: PDF
  • Description: This report on a community consultation held “to explore how services could be enhanced for these communities as well as more recently arrived immigrant groups,” though focused on Vancouver, reveals the barriers immigrants and others from various ethnocultural communities face in getting health and mental health care.

 

  • Title: Hidden Bias: A Primer
  • Author: Tolerance.org
  • Web Host: Tolerance.org
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Explores hidden biases and prejudice, and what to do about them.

 

 

 

Mental Health and Substance Use Issues in Ethnocultural Communities

  • Title: Culture Counts: Best Practices in Community Education in Mental Health and Addiction with Ethnoracial/Ethnocultural Communities; Phase One Report
  • Author: Branka Agic
     Web Host: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: PDF
  • Description: Report on the Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines translation/adaptation project that formed the basis for this guide.

 

  • Title: Cross Cultural Mental Health and Addictions Issues
  • Author: BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information
    Web Host:
  • Country: British Columbia, Canada
  • Format: HTML, PDF
    (also available as     French PDF )
  • Description: An overview of mental health and addictions issues affecting ethnocultural communities. Some references are specific to British Columbia but most of the information can be applied anywhere.

 

  • Title: Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity
  • Author: Office of the Surgeon General
     Web Host: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General, SAMHSA
     Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Although this document refers to the American context, much its discussion of cultural differences in perceptions of mental health can be universally applied.

 

  • Title: The Mutual Embeddedness of Culture and Mental Illness (Online Readings on Psychology and Culture, Unit 9, Chapter 1)
  • Author: David Lackland Sam and Virginia Moreira
    Web Host: Center for Cross-Cultural Research, University of Western Washington
  • Country: USA
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: A paper exploring how culture and mental illness are entwined.

 

  • Title: Mental Health and Well-Being
  • Author: HARP (Health for Asylum Seekers and Refugees Portal)
     Web Host: Harpweb
  • Country: UK
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Links to information about mental health issues of refugees.

 

  • Title: Cross-Cultural Mental Health
  • Author: Visions Journal, No. 9, Winter 2000
     Web Host: Canadian Mental Health Association – British Columbia Division
  • Country: British Columbia, Canada
  • Format: PDF
  • Description: Most of this issue is devoted to aspects of cross-cultural mental health.

Stigma

  • Title: Beyond the Label
  • Author: Marcia Gibson et al.
  • Web Host: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: PDF (print version also available for purchase)
  • Description: An educational kit for running workshops to promote awareness and understanding of the impact of stigma on people living with concurrent mental health and substance use problems.

 

  • Title: Stigma: Understanding the impact of prejudice and discrimination on people with mental health and substance use problems
  • Author: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
  • Web Host: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
  • Country: Canada
  • Format: HTML
  • Description: Online version of brochure outlining the impact of stigma on people with mental health and substance use problems and suggesting ways to get rid of stigma.

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