When we look at a patient and their condition or diagnosis it can be easy to have tunnel vision and simply treating the condition and moving on. When it comes to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander healthcare, we must always look at the broader picture of what is happening in this person’s life.
Multidisciplinary Care is extremely important to anyone receiving care and in particular our First Nations community. It is the holistic wrap around approach that makes a difference, however, we cannot simply put additional resources into a patient’s treatment circle and hope for the best. We need to try and develop the workforce to ensure that we are all providing culturally safe care that suits the needs of our First Nations community.
Cultural Safety comes in many forms such as the way we talk, the way we look, the way we act, the environment we are in, and the environment we create. Cultural safety is a serious topic, we need to do better than asking a question and ticking a box, then moving on.