The South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD) health promotion unit is helping women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to improve their health and wellbeing through language.
The Bilingual Community Education program enables women to be more proactive in making health decisions for themselves and their loved ones.
The program identifies women from new and emerging communities and trains them to become accredited bilingual community educators.
Bilingual educators then run programs in community languages for women in their respective language.
During Multicultural Health Week, which runs from September 4 to 10, the health promotion service is running two bilingual community education programs: Healthy Women in Spanish and Vietnamese, and Women Growing Older for Arabic-speaking women.
The district’s director of health promotion service, Mandy Williams, said the service was important for both health and social outcomes.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“We believe that by increasing women’s knowledge around preventive health care, and simplifying access to health services we can go a long way to promoting social connection and creating individual empowerment,” she said.[/social_quote]
Bilingual Community Education programs include:
• New Healthy Women’s Program
• Women and Children growing together in a New Country
• Healthy Eating and Physical Activity
• Diabetes Awareness
• Living with Choices
• Changing Lives (Keep you Balance)
• Family Harmony and Healthy Relationships
• Women Growing Older together
• Breast Screening
• Menopause
• Heart Smart for Women
Programs are available in a range of languages, including Arabic, Vietnamese, Assyrian, Farsi, Spanish, Turkish, Tagalog, Hindi, Mandarin and Cantonese.
For more information on the bilingual community education program please contact Sharda Jogia on 9828 6927 or Iman Zakhary on 9828 6961.
♦ Multicultural Health Week across the district:
• Campbelltown Hospital: wards will hold ‘multicultural bites’ lunches during the week
• Liverpool Hospital: Wednesday September 6, 10am to 2pm
• Fairfield Hospital: Monday 4 September 11am to 2pm, information stalls, free multicultural lunch and a performance
• Bankstown Hospital: Tuesday 5 September, 10am to 4pm, health information stalls, blood pressure check, a raffle, DIY hand massage, music, giveaways and more.
