Multicultural Health Week

Today marks the beginning of Multicultural Health Week!

This week is an opportunity to raise awareness of health issues experienced by culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This year’s theme is Cancer Screening, with a focus on the three National Cancer Screening Programs.

Here are some facts:

  • Women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities have lower participation rates in BreastScreen NSW than the general population.4
  • In 2020–to21, 43% of eligible women in NSW were screened for breast cancer. This figure is 8 percentage points lower for culturally and linguistically diverse women.5
  • Australians who spoke a language other than English at home had a lower bowel screening participation rate than those who spoke English at 25–to34% compared to 45–to49%, respectively.6

GPs play a significant role in improving screening rates in culturally and linguistically diverse communities as you are seen as trusted sources of health information by community members, especially newly arrived refugee communities.

Cancer Institute NSW has produced factsheets in 38 languages with key messages on the national cancer screening programs. This information can be downloaded as factsheets or as audio files here: Cancer Screening Resources by Language – MHW 2022 (multiculturalhealthweek.com)


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