Social and Cultural Diversity

Chapter 19: Social and Cultural Diversity

Overview:

• Explains about how to provide appropriate gynaecological care for women with disabilities
• Includes suggestions for how to care for women from diverse cultural backgrounds and circumstances
• Focuses on providing non-judgmental care for lesbian women suffering from gynaecological cancer

Description:

Women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer can experience a range of painful emotions including anxiety, depression, uncertainty, guilt, and anger. Cultural factors can add to this burden and can affect how patients cope with their diagnosis and treatment. This chapter discusses two major challenges for health professionals working with women from diverse backgrounds: the challenge of recognising barriers that exist in providing care for women of socially and culturally diverse backgrounds; and the challenge of communicating sensitively with these women.

Topics:

• Women with disabilities
  • Physical: intellectual; and mental disability
• Culturally and linguistically diverse women
• Refugee women
• Lesbian women

Speaker / Author:

Lisbeth Lane
Lisbeth is a registered psychologist. She holds bachelor’s degrees in education and arts, and a PhD in psychology. Her doctoral thesis addressed the psychological support needs of women living with cancer. As an honorary fellow of the University of Wollongong (Australia) she lectures in the Department of Health and Behavioural Sciences on psychological issues related to diagnoses of cancer and other chronic diseases.

Lisbeth has provided individual and group interventions for adults with cancer in hospital and community health settings and in private practice. She is a member of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia and has presented widely at National and International conferences on the psychosocial issues of women with cancer. She has been published in peer-reviewed journals and has written chapters for psychological theory texts. Lisbeth is in clinical practice at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney (Australia) as a member of a multi-disciplinary team working in gynaecological oncology and is conducting research on perceptions of a gynaecological cancer diagnosis in a culturally and linguistically diverse population.

Professional Reviews: