This resource aims to supplements the CALD 7 course. It provides additional religion-cultural information on traditional belief systems in East Asian cultures such as Taoism, Confucianism and Folk religious practices. The resource discusses the impact of these practices on Western health interactions. It includes religio-culturally appropriate assessment and guidelines; multi-media examples to illustrate issues with self-reflective questions and quizzes.
Whilst the focus of this resource is on differences and similarities across the specified systems, it is important to note that practitioners are not expected to become experts in the beliefs systems themselves, but to be able to implement cultural competence skills in interacting with patients from diverse religious backgrounds. Research indicates that CALD service users value individualised care over specialised ethnic services; interventions can best be tailored within an understanding of their cultural context (Garwick et al, 1998).
The information in this resource reflects traditional religious/philosophical beliefs that may not be relevant to all families, nor to some migrant and second-generation clients, or to the younger generations. People from different Asian cultures may follow other faiths (e.g. Filipinos are mostly Catholic and many Koreans are Protestant). It cannot be stressed strongly enough that in order to avoid stereotyping, the information needs to be used as context ONLY.
Note: This resources is not meant to be viewed as a stand-alone document.
