Culturally and linguistically diverse communities
About the pathway
Welcome to the Culturally and linguistically diverse communities pathway. This pathway is for anyone who works with children or parents from diverse cultural or linguistic backgrounds. It is designed to build your confidence in working with families who have a culture that is different to your own.
Culturally and linguistically diverse families have disproportionately poorer health outcomes and face numerous hurdles to accessing the support they need.1 As a practitioner, you can improve the experience of children and families by developing strong cross-cultural communication and diverse community connections, and by understanding the barriers families face, while helping them to overcome them.
This pathway explores practice considerations that support culturally responsive and inclusive work with families. It will unpack why exploring a family’s migration and acculturation journeys, cultural identities, and cultural family practices is a key part of effective practice. It will also help you to consider how cultural humility and reflective practice can help you combat racism and unconscious bias.
Learning outcomes
As you progress through this learning pathway you will build your understanding and skills across a range of key areas, including:
- child mental health in a culturally diverse context
- key domains of cultural considerations when working with families
- cultural curiosity and the importance of exploring a child and family’s migration and acculturation journeys
- highlighting and enabling families’ wisdom and practices
- challenging and reflecting on your own language and unintentional cultural biases; and
- developing community connections to build trust with families and improve their access to support services.
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022). Cultural diversity of Australia. Canberra, ACT: ABS.