NSW Health has a proud history of being a leader in providing health care services for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Multicultural health services focus on assisting consumers and public health staff so that the NSW Health system is accessible and accommodating for culturally and linguistically diverse communities in NSW.
The NSW Plan for Healthy Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities 2019-2023 aims to improve our systems and processes to promote better health for NSW residents from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The plan aims to ensure that people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have equitable access to health care services that are culturally responsive, safe and high quality.
The plan also affirms the commitment of NSW Health to the principles of the Multicultural NSW Act 2000, in particular respecting and making provision for the culture and language of others. The plan serves as the NSW Health multicultural plan under the NSW Multicultural Policies and Services Program.
A summary of the plan is available in:
All NSW Government agencies are expected to provide high quality services and programs for all people in NSW. The Multicultural Policies and Services Program is a mechanism for public sector agencies, including NSW Health, to show how they are planning effectively for people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and to report on their progress.
The Ministry's Health and Social Policy Branch provides leadership and guidance to support a systematic approach to multicultural and refugee health.
Each year HSPB gathers information from across NSW Health about multicultural health achievements, planned initiatives and progress under the Plan. This information is included in the NSW Health Annual Report and provided bi-annually in a comprehensive report to Multicultural NSW, which reports annually to the NSW Parliament through its Community Relations Report. This includes details of agency compliance and highlights examples of best practice.
The 2020-22 NSW Health MPSP report [PDF] outlines how NSW Health organisations have supported the health of people from CALD backgrounds from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2022. This follows the 2018-20 NSW Health MPSP report [PDF].