Good practice principles
The department is:
- mandating that health services accurately and consistently collect data on cultural and linguistic diversity including country of birth, preferred/main language spoken at home, interpreter requested, interpreter provided and year of arrival to ensure consistency with the national ABS Data Standards for Statistics on Cultural and Linguistic Diversity
- using evidence to plan and design culturally competent programs and policies that address health inequities, including population-level data and research, settlement data, health service uptake, interpreter use data and community consultation findings
- measuring and monitoring long-term health outcomes for multicultural communities by analysing administrative data, using data linkage and supporting research partnerships
- routinely monitoring, analysing and evaluating funded service performance, program effectiveness and consumer experience to ensure continuous quality improvement
- regularly reporting on multicultural health outcomes to improve public accountability and transparency while also ensuring specific community groups are not stigmatised
- advocating for changes to national data definitions and standards on cultural, linguistic, ethnic and/or religious identity and implementing any changes in Victorian health datasets.
Practical resources and supports
- Outcomes frameworks and internal data dashboards for:
- Centre for Evaluation and Research Evidence
- Stronger Futures Know our story: a toolkit for social equity and
- Department of Health: Cultural diversity data sources factsheet
- Victorian Government: Language maps of multicultural
- ABS Data Standards for Statistics on Cultural and Linguistic
Actions we will take
| Flagship initiatives | Timeframe | Lead division |
|---|---|---|
6.1 Embed a focus on measuring and monitoring health outcomes for multicultural communities into all new departmental outcomes frameworks including:
| 2023–27 | Whole-of-department responsibility led by:
|
6.2 Reform mental health data collections as part of the response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System including:
| Ongoing | Mental Health and Wellbeing |
6.3 Address inequities in cancer outcomes by improving representation of multicultural communities in cancer data and research. Projects include:
| Ongoing | Action shared by: • Hospitals and Health Services • Community and Public Health |
| Other new and continuing actions | Timeframe | Lead division |
|---|---|---|
6.4 Lead data collection improvement projects through the Victorian Agency for Health Information including:
| 2023–24 | eHealth |
| 6.5 Ensure evaluations and research reports on existing funded multicultural health programs are shared internally through the department’s Evaluation and Research Knowledge Bank to enhance evidence-based program improvement. | Ongoing | Whole-of-department responsibility, led by eHealth |
| 6.6 Centre for Evaluation and Research Evidence to offer dedicated workshops/capacity-building sessions on culturally competent evaluation to meet public sector evaluation needs. | 2023–24 | eHealth |
Good practice example: Boosting multicultural community participation in patient experience surveys
The department undertook the Engagement of culturally diverse populations in the Victorian Healthcare Experience Survey (VHES) project to understand how to better enable multicultural Victorians to take part in the VHES program and provide feedback on their experiences of health care.
Multicultural communities have historically been under-represented in the VHES, which provides key information to the department and health services on experiences of care to improve patient-centred care.
The engagement of culturally diverse populations in the VHES project involved consultation with people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to identify barriers to providing feedback about their healthcare experiences and develop considerations to increase participation in the VHES. The project also engaged representatives of Victorian public health services, peak bodies, the department, Safer Care Victoria and academics working in this area.
Findings will be considered as part of broader reforms to improve how we listen and act on consumer feedback over the next 12 to 24 months. Through their involvement in the project, several participants joined the Safer Care Victoria consumer database to represent their communities as health consumers.
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Outcomes frameworks and internal data dashboards for:
- Department of Health strategic plan 2023–27
- Mental health and wellbeing outcomes and performance framework
- Victorian public health and wellbeing plan 2023–27
Centre for Evaluation and Research resources
Stronger Futures Know our story: a toolkit for social equity and
ABS Data Standards for Statistics on Cultural and Linguistic
Reviewed 27 March 2024