A new guidebook published by the Health Service Executive (HSE) will offer practical advice for healthcare workers dealing with people from diverse religions and cultures.
The HSE today published the Health Services Intercultural Guide, which was developed under its National Intercultural Health Strategy 2007-2012 in response to the needs of diverse religious communities and cultures in healthcare settings.
It explains best practice in caring for individuals in an intercultural environment, and offers guidance to health service providers on working with people from diverse religions and cultures, including Baptists, Christians, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, the Roma community and Irish Traveller communities, amongst others.
The 228-page guide profiles the needs of twenty-five diverse groups.
“It is primarily targeted at in-patient settings including acute, paediatric, maternity, hospices, residential/community units, etc. and will be of interest to a range of staff including chaplains, mortuary staff, nurses/midwives and health care assistants,” the HSE said in a statement.
Information in the book includes tips on dealing with bereaved families and on how different cultures prepare their loved one’s body following death.
In the section dealing with the Sikh community, for example, it mentions that a grieving family should not be offered a lock of a deceased child’s hair. It also notes that Sikhs do not subscribed to religious icons and that such objects should not be placed in a room where a deceased person is laid out.
Speaking at an event to mark the publication of the document, HSE assistant national director, social inclusion, Alice O’Flynn said: “This guide is a practical tool for healthcare staff delivering services to the diversity of population that is the Ireland of 2009 and we value enormously the participation and consultation with the religious and cultural leaders that enabled this publication.”
The last census in 2006 indicated significant demographic changes in Ireland with about 10 per cent of the Irish population now originating from other countries and people migrating to Ireland from 188 different countries, the HSE noted.
“Ireland is a multicultural country and so we must ensure that our services can respond to the needs of the diversity of the population.”
The document will be distributed to hospitals, hospices, residential services, older people’s organisations, and community services, academic institutions, and the NGO sector.
Earlier this year the HSE launched an emergency multilingual aid box (EMA) to all 52 acute hospitals throughout the country. The box includes phrase books in 20 languages to assist healthcare workers in their dealings with non-English speakers.