This month, Qistina Taufiq, HCC’s Cultural Diversity Engagement Officer, and Clare Mullen, Executive Director, were privileged to be invited to celebrate the WA Multicultural Awards – a program run by the WA Office of Multicultural Interests.
This is because Health Consumers’ Council was recognised as a nominee in the category of Community Service and Support – General Community Service organisation. The evening was a wonderful celebration of the diversity, capability, resourcefulness and strength of people from a wide range of culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds and the organisations that serve them.
HCC has had a targeted program of work aiming both to ensure people coming to Australia from other countries understand the WA health system and how to navigate it – as well as ensuring the voices of people from multicultural backgrounds are sought and listened to as decisions about health and healthcare are made – since 2011. Louise Ford joined the HCC team then and pioneered a program of workshops on Health Rights and Responsibilities for CaLD communities.
The program was expanded in 2015 to include HCC’s popular workshop on Supporting Cultural Diversity in Healthcare. This workshop is aimed at health service providers who want to develop their capability in ensuring health services are inclusive of people from all cultures. HCC is funded to run this workshop twice a year – and we also deliver it on a fee for service basis to a number of healthcare organisations.
In 2025, HCC will be finishing a project we’ve been working on with Cancer Council WA and the WA Department of Health to produce a range of information leaflets about cancer treatment for people from CaLD backgrounds. HCC’s role has been to support a consumer advisory group made up of people from a range of communities and cultures to inform the development and production of these resources.
Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of these important Awards.
