UWA Medical School, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
Bilya Marlee, School of Indigenous Studies, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2024 Jun;58(6):498-505. doi: 10.1177/00048674241246444. Epub 2024 Apr 19.
Culturally safe service provision is essential to improving social and emotional wellbeing among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and to eliminating health inequities. Cultural safety is about ensuring that all people have a safe and healing journey through services, regardless of their cultural background. In this project, we aim to (1) understand how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples conceptualise cultural safety, and (2) co-design a qualitative interview for the next phase of this project, where we plan to learn about experiences of cultural safety within mental health services.
We conducted six focus groups (in one metro and two regional areas, Western Australia). Following an Aboriginal Participatory Action Research methodology, we yarned with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health service users, carers, community members, mental health professionals and Cultural Healers about cultural safety.
Participants described a culturally safe service as one where Aboriginal cultural knowledges, life experiences, issues and protocols are understood and acknowledged, and reported that mainstream mental health services are not currently culturally safe. Participants emphasised the importance of building trust, rapport, reciprocity and following appropriate relational processes when designing a qualitative interview for the next phase.
A lack of cultural safety in mental health services is likely to contribute to the disparity in outcomes between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians. Embedding cultural safety into research design allows for authentic community engagement and facilitates knowledge sharing around ways to improve cultural safety in mental health services.
为了改善原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民社区的社会和情感福祉，消除健康不平等，提供文化安全的服务至关重要。文化安全是指确保所有的人在服务过程中都有一个安全和治愈的旅程，无论他们的文化背景如何。在这个项目中，我们旨在（1）了解原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民如何理解文化安全，（2）共同设计一个定性访谈，以便在下一步项目中了解心理健康服务中的文化安全体验。
我们进行了六次焦点小组（在一个大都市和两个地区，西澳大利亚）。根据土著参与行动研究方法，我们与原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民心理健康服务使用者、照顾者、社区成员、心理健康专业人员和文化治疗师一起讨论文化安全。
参与者将文化安全的服务描述为一种理解和承认土著文化知识、生活经验、问题和规范的服务，并报告说主流心理健康服务目前并不具有文化安全性。参与者强调在设计下一阶段的定性访谈时，建立信任、融洽关系、互惠和遵循适当的关系过程的重要性。
心理健康服务中缺乏文化安全可能是导致原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民与非土著澳大利亚人之间结果存在差异的原因之一。将文化安全纳入研究设计允许进行真正的社区参与，并促进围绕如何改善心理健康服务中的文化安全的知识共享。
