About eCALD® Services

eCALD® Services is part of the Institute for Innovation and Improvement (i3), Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand - Waitematā.

Our vision and mission

Our vision is to enhance cultural competence for cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD) through the provision of courses and resources for the New Zealand health workforce, for better client/patient outcomes and experience.

Our mission is to provide a comprehensive and quality range of face-to-face and online courses, as well as resources, available digitally and easily accessible, for addressing CALD cultural competencies within the New Zealand health context.

CALD in New Zealand

CALD in our education programme refers to culturally and linguistically diverse groups who are migrants and refugees from Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and African (MELAA) backgrounds.

Cultural competence refers to the ability to communicate and interact effectively between cultures. Cultural competence comprises four components: cultural awareness, sensitivity, knowledge and skills.

With the increasing cultural diversity of New Zealand's population, our health workforce is increasingly likely to care for clients or interact with colleagues with language, experiences, beliefs and cultures different from theirs.

Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand requires the workforce to provide services that acknowledge the diversity of cultures and ensure services are accessible, culturally appropriate, effective and safe. Added to that, the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCAA) requires registration authorities to set standards of clinical competence and cultural competence. This has led to health professional bodies setting standards for "Cultural Awareness" and "Cultural and Linguistic Diversity" competencies.

Cultural diversity in New Zealand

Our New Zealand population is increasingly ethnically, culturally, religiously, and linguistically diverse and is set to become more so. Our people come from everywhere. In the most recent census (2018), StatsNZ recorded more than 180+ ethnicities, 170+ spoken languages and 157 religions. Additionally, Asian and MELAA groups are the fastest-growing populations in New Zealand.

In New Zealand, Asian peoples account for 15 percent of the overall population (707,598), an increase of 33% from the 2013 census.  Asian ethnic groups have almost doubled in size since 2001. We have 62.6 percent of Asians in New Zealand residing in Auckland (442,956), accounting for 28.1 percent of the Auckland population (StatsNZ, 2018).

Middle Eastern, Latin American and African peoples (MELAA) make up 1.5 percent of the population (70,332), an increase of 35.1 percent from the 2013 census (StatsNZ, 2018).

The 2018 Census also identified 24 percent of the New Zealand population as overseas-born, many have identified as being in New Zealand for less than 10 years. This means that many of our migrants may not be familiar with the NZ health, disability and social system.

With such diversity, a broad range of values and beliefs might exist within a cultural group and there are also sub-cultural differences within the major cultural group. We have to be mindful not to make assumptions based on clients’ religious, ethnic or cultural community alone, as it may not accurately reflect an individual's or family's values.

 

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