Refugee health the focus of our project with Manchester and La Trobe universities

Bendigo Community Health Services has been working with researchers from La Trobe University and Manchester Metropolitan University to improve the health and wellbeing of refugee communities.

BCHS Cultural Diversity and Relationships manager Kaye Graves said the project has delivered key information around the health of Karen people.

"The evidence-based advice offered in new information sheets through this project will help organisations working with the Karen community get a better understanding of their health and wellbeing needs which will improve their care and services," Ms Graves said.

"We supported the university researchers to host a workshop with 52 members of the Karen community to gain a great understanding of health and wellbeing needs from the community's perspective and what type of information should be included in this information sheet.

"The information sheet is easy to read and understand to ensure the organisations who use them can get to work on helping us improve the health and wellbeing of the Karen community. This is something that's really important to us and we welcome all the help we can get in achieving our aim of supporting and caring for this special community."

Ms Graves said the information sheets encouraged staff from service providers to improve access for the Karen community, show kindness, respect and be aware of health literacy needs.

"The information sheets provide key terms and concepts in Karen language to help with the communication between service providers and their clients," Ms Graves said.

"For example Mee ter nay ba means not sleeping or Aw ter we ba means not eating. These are important terms that service providers can use when communicating with clients from the Karen community.

"There's a few nice little phrases their too such as Gaw ler gay which is 'good morning' and Ta blute which is 'thank you' that can just improve the relationship between service provider and client."

Ms Graves said the information sheets were now being distributed to service providers across the Greater Bendigo region and anyone wanting access should email   or call the Cultural Diversity team on 5406 1200.

"It was fantastic working with researchers from La Trobe University and Manchester Metropolitan University on this project and it's really encouraging that organisations such as these are sharing a common interest in working to improve the health and wellbeing of the Karen community. It's such important work and everything we can do to help other organisations understand the need and get to work on making a difference is just so valuable."