Duration: October 2015 – October 2018
Healthcare provision has become increasingly diverse, from the range of patients accessing services and their heterogeneous needs to practitioners regularly working in transcultural teams. Diversity manifests on a daily basis: in diverse habits and ways to communicate (shaking hands, eating habits, contraception, fasting, expression of feelings, concepts of the body). When not addressed properly by trained professionals, these challenges can result in the refusal of treatment, under-treatment or maltreatment, and the potential for discrimination.
The primary objective of the Healthy Diversity project is to improve the capacity of health professionals and health care institutions in meeting the needs of a culturally diverse patient group, thereby reducing the barriers to accessing services and alleviating different forms of discrimination within the health sector.
Three training needs have been identified:
- Developing transcultural competencies
- Reducing linguistic barriers
- Methods of empowering patients with diverse needs
Our ICT-supported training tools address the following target groups:
- Health professionals working with diverse patient groups
- Managers of health service providers and decision-makers
- Institutions providing continuous / initial education for health professionals
The "Healthy Diversity" project will produce the following resources:
- Manual of 60 analyzed Critical Incidents in the realm of health care provision
- Medical Anthropology Reader
- Collection of Best Practice Examples and an Assessment-Tool for health care initiatives focusing on diversity management and/or intercultural communication
- Healthy Diversity Curriculum directed at health care professionals
- Open Online Course for health care professionals
Partners: WREP (UK), Elan Interculturel (FR), Universität Wien (AT), CESIE (IT), mht consult (DK), Artemisszió Alapítvány (HU), South Warwickshire NHS (UK)
