Discuss why nutrition is a central component in health promotion

Discuss why nutrition is a central component in health promotion

The United Nations state “the world is on the move, and the number of international migrants today is higher than ever before.” [1]. The associated growing diversification of societies offers many opportunities for societal and economic growth but often presents a challenge for receiving countries. Consequences can include inequalities and discrimination in different areas [2]. The European Union (EU) and the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) ratified the universal right to health as a fundamental human right. Nevertheless, inequalities in access to healthcare exist worldwide and are related to the legal and socioeconomic status of each individual and the laws and policies of each country [3, 4]. In fact, culturally and linguistically diverse patients (CLDP) access healthcare services less than the host populations and are confronted with different barriers [3–7]. These barriers include the organization and complexity of healthcare systems, legal restrictions on access to certain health services, linguistic and cultural barriers, discrimination and limited competencies or unawareness of providers. These are often intertwined with individual factors such as low health literacy, employment status, fear of stigma, language barriers or differences in health beliefs and behaviors [2–7]. Betancourt identified three levels of sociocultural barriers to healthcare: organizational barriers, structural barriers and clinical barriers. Incorporating Cultural Awareness And Sensitivity To Patient Compliance Essay Organizational barriers, which affect availability and acceptability of healthcare for CLDP, refer for instance to the degree to which the population’s cultural and linguistic diversity is represented in the leadership and workforce of healthcare organizations. Structural barriers emerge from the complexity and bureaucracy of healthcare systems. Specifically, the absence of interpreter services and of culturally and linguistically adapted materials, increased wait times among CLDP populations and problems in referrals to specialist care cause dissatisfaction and inequalities. Clinical barriers occur in patient/provider interactions and can be seen as sociocultural differences which are not identified, accepted or understood. These can lead to mistrust, dissatisfaction, decreased adherence and poorer health outcomes [8].

The implementation of cultural competence in healthcare facilities seemed to be the answer to these disparities, and traditional receiving countries have been working towards it [8–12]. Indeed, the demand for culturally competent healthcare systems has reached the political levels of diverse countries. The National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Service Standards (CLAS Standards) were introduced in 2000 in the United States [13], and in 2005 the Australian government published “Cultural competency in health: A guide for policy, partnerships and participation” [14]. In 2007 the “cultural opening” of healthcare facilities was demanded by a representative of the German federal government [15] and the NHS has offered the migrant health guide since 2014 [16]. Incorporating Cultural Awareness And Sensitivity To Patient Compliance Essay

There are different definitions, names and implementation guidelines for the concept of cultural competence or cultural competency [12, 17]. The most commonly used definition is the one by Cross et al. (1989): „Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, agency or those professions to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” [18]. This definition emphasizes that cultural competence is implemented on different levels of care. Corresponding to their identified barriers, Betancourt et al. (2003) differentiate between three levels of interventions: organizational, structural and clinical cultural competence interventions [8]. Fung et al. (2012) take a systemic approach and define cultural competence on macro, meso (institutional and programmatic) and micro levels, by which macro reflects the societal level, meso the organizational and micro the individual clinical level [10]. The German concept of “cultural opening”describes the process of adapting or “opening”facilities and is hence a process of organizational development which includes interventions on different levels within facilities [19]. Incorporating Cultural Awareness And Sensitivity To Patient Compliance Essay

Existing systematic reviews have focused on defining theoretical concepts [8, 9, 20] or on the effectiveness of cultural competence interventions [11, 12, 17, 21, 22]. Individual cultural competence among healthcare providers was examined most frequently [12, 20]. A systematic review of reviews on cultural competence in healthcare f