05 September 2022
Multicultural Health Week this week (5 to 11 September) is an opportunity to raise awareness of health issues experienced by culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This year’s theme is Cancer Screening, with a focus on the three National Cancer Screening Programs.
The facts:
- Women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities have lower participation rates in BreastScreen NSW than the general population
- In 2020-21, 43 per cent of eligible women in NSW were screened for breast cancer. This figure is eight percentage points lower for culturally and linguistically diverse women
- Australians who spoke a language other than English at home had a lower bowel screening participation rate than those who spoke English at 25 to 34 per cent compared to 45 to 49 per cent, respectively (source: AIHW 2021 National Bowel Cancer Screening Program Monitoring Report)
Resources:
- Multicultural Health Week website
- Resource Directory listing Cancer Institute NSW all in-language resources
- Language resources: Cancer Institute NSW has produced factsheets in 38 languages with key messages on the national cancer screening programs. They are downloadable as factsheets or as audio files (in eight languages). Access the resources here or here
