In 2023–24, the government funded the Cancer Council Victoria (CCV) to partner with organisations serving multicultural communities. This work was part of the Victorian Cancer Screening Framework.
The project aimed to increase awareness and access to cancer screening. It encouraged people from Vietnamese, Hindi and Punjabi speaking communities to access bowel cancer screening.
CCV also ran capacity-building sessions for more than 70 bicultural workers fluent in languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Burmese, Urdu and Haka Chin (DH as part of the $3.6 million Cancer Screening Framework program).
In addition, Bendigo Community Health Services provided cancer support for people from refugee backgrounds. This included around 30 education sessions for just under 300 Karen and Afghan community members. These sessions covered bowel, breast, prostate and cervical cancer and cancer screening. The project included cancer-specific training for bicultural workers working with people from refugee backgrounds. This work aimed to ensure equitable outcomes following cancer diagnosis.
CCV and BreastScreen Victoria also co-developed targeted cancer and cancer-screening resources for the Karen and Afghan communities.
Screening services worked with communities to improve access, such as providing cancer care navigation for Karen and Afghan community members with cancer (DH: $0.4 million in 2023–24).
Another project, DH’s Lactation Support Initiative, supports women from multicultural backgrounds to breastfeed. The initiative worked with the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) to provide training and courses for multicultural communities. It also recruited multicultural support mentors.
In 2023–24, 8 representatives took part in training to help their communities. These representatives came from Sri Lankan, Filipino, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Indian and South African backgrounds. The training prepared them to provide peer support and connect new families with qualified lactation consultants. It included linking families to services offered by Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services.
The initiative also supported local government MCH services to provide staff training and support for lactation consultations. Some MCH services set up new breastfeeding clinics. Others added more sessions in their existing clinics. They also provided educational classes (DH: $1 million in 2023–24).
Case study
The Smile Squad delivers free oral health promotion, dental check-ups and treatment to Victorian government school students at school. We know that poor oral health disproportionately affects people from multicultural backgrounds –in particular, those who are refugees and asylum seekers.
The Smile Squad Refugee Advisory Group was established in 2023 to:
- better understand the oral health needs and challenges of students from refugee backgrounds
- improve the reach and access of the Smile Squad program.
Advisory group members shaped the design and promotion of the Dental Health Services Victoria’s Refugee Talent Scholarship. This scholarship supports dentists from refugee backgrounds to gain Australian registration.
Smile Squad also held community consultations with parents. This was done through the Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health (CEH). These parents had primary school children and came from refugee communities from Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Myanmar and Rohingya regions. Dental care experts, schools, and refugee and asylum seeker families helped to create a simplified consent form. The new form aimed to increase participation among priority groups.
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