This rare book provides the foundations to work on health promotion and disease prevention (HPDP) in multicultural society and assumes that a health care practitioner also provides HPDP services. It details planning and implementation strategies and barriers and potentialities of specific populations, some relevant to the Australian context: Asian, Pacific Islanders and Latin American.

The book establishes that cultural aspects are one of the key social determinants of health and that culture is everywhere and is used by everyone to construct reality, incorporating aspects passed down through generation, as well as aspects from any given society. It explains that cultural differences between health promoters and clients may be viewed as barriers, but ones that must be overcome if the goal of uniform health delivery to a multicultural population is to be attained. This goal must then be worked for disregarding the antiquated notions of acculturation and assimilation, where the dominant society’s culture engulfs minority cultures, but through cultural competence and ethno-sensitivity.

These concepts emphasise a culturally sensitive discourse between the health practitioner and the client; for example, the health practitioner should demonstrate a genuine interest and respect for cultural differences. Where these cultural variations create barriers, ethno-sensitivity should be put into practice on the part of the health practitioner by learning from clients and taking the time to explain Western perceptions of health and illness and health care practices thus optimising cross-cultural communication.

The reader is reminded that aspects of the client and target group are as important as own socio-cultural orientations and organisational aspects in the achievement of health outcomes. The way in which the organisation perceives the target group, how it prepares to deliver culturally competent services, and how it is oranised physically and in it policies plays as great a role as the demographic characteristics of the group, its epidemiological and environmental influences, health beliefs and practices and general and specific cultural characteristics such as communication patterns, perceptions of self and community, time orientation and world view.

The book distinguishes the frameworks for cultural tailoring and targeting HPDP interventions to diverse cultural groups. The latter merely ensures exposure of the target group to the intervention whereas cultural tailoring takes into account the specific cultural factors that influence behaviour related to health and disease.

This book is a useful tool for those working HPDP of people with a cultural other than their own.

Promoting Health in Multicultural Populations: A Handbook for Practitioners, Huff, R. and Kline, Michael. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks (CA) 1999

Review reprinted with permission from
“Translink”, the Newsletter of the Queenlsand Tanscultural Mental Health Centre, Issue No 21, March 2002