What is CALD Education?

CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) training enhances cultural competency in working with migrants and refugees. Professional relationships with CALD clients who have different concepts of illness or presenting behaviours can be challenging for practitioners. Cultural competency when working with CALD clients is essential for communication and improves the accuracy of clinical diagnoses. It also improves the quality of the client‐provider interaction and relationship.

The acculturation process of each migrant or refugee follows an individual pattern. The following symptoms may develop for a range of reasons such as differences between expectations and experience, discrimination, problems in adapting, post traumatic stress disorder, separation from family members:

• becoming withdrawn, depressed
• inability to learn the language or to find work
• experiencing mental health problems two or three years after the 'honeymoon period' (i.e. getting residency and getting settled) is over.

These experiences are overlaid on a base of different and individual ethnic, cultural and religious frameworks. CALD training is a practical approach to improving the awareness, knowledge and skills of those working with migrant and refugee clients. The training also focuses on the knowledge and skills required to work effectively with interpreters.

Who is the Programme For?

CALD training is designed to support and improve the practice of a wide range of health professionals including medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and others working with refugees and/or migrants from diverse cultural backgrounds.

In addition, CALD training may be adapted to other professional groups such as social workers, education personnel and those working in the areas of youth development or youth justice.

Accreditation

The CALD programme is NZQA accredited, and is also recognised for CME (Continuing Medical Education) credits as training for medical practitioners.

Origins of this NZ Programme

CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) education was developed in 2007 from a joint national pilot demonstration/evaluation project for health practitioners in training. The project was accepted and funded by the Wings Innovation Fund of Te Pou, and developed by

• Refugees as Survivors NZ Trust in association with
• Waitemata District Health Board, and the Northern DHB Support Agency

The 6 training modules were supported by the ‘Cross-Cultural Resource for Health Practitioners Working with CALD Clients’. This publication including CD disc provides extra background information by ethnic group. To be used effectively it should support the experiential CALD training which develops information, attitudes, skills and appropriate behaviours.

In 2008 and 2009 the pilot project was conducted in four centres of refugee and migrant settlement in NZ – Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North and Christchurch, with attendees also from Wellington and Nelson. The 6 modules were completed by 110 registered health practitioners– from the disciplines of medicine, psychology, psychiatry, nursing, social work, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and health education.