Bilingual Community Health Navigators in General Practice

Nearly half of the Australians are suffering from chronic illnesses who require frequent visit to health service. However, the health system is too complex to navigate for the patients in Australia. This project focuses on to explore the feasibility and acceptability of involving bilingual community navigator in general practice setting to facilitate smooth navigation of the chronic patients from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) background to the health and social care services.

Chief investigators

Mark Harris

Project coordinator

Sabuj Kanti Mistry

Team members

Elizabeth Harris

Project Rationale

Nearly half of the Australians are suffering from chronic illnesses who require frequent visit to health service. However, the health system is too complex to navigate for the patients in Australia. Which is particularly true for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) people. While there is international evidence that community health workers are effective in helping the patients to increase access to health services, this is largely missing in Australia.

Project Aim/s

Present research aimed to explore the feasibility, suitability, and acceptability of bilingual community navigators in providing navigation support to people suffering from chronic illness in general practice setting of Sydney, Australia.

Project Design and Method

The study will follow a multiphase mixed method design which involves systematic review of the evaluable evidence around the effectiveness of CHW role as navigator, needs assessment at the practice level, codesign workshop including patients, provider, other stakeholders, and pilot intervention in the five selected general practices of Sydney, Australia to explore the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention.

Contact

Mark Harris Phone: 02 9385 8384 Email: m.f.harris@unsw.edu.au

Key Partners

CESPHN, SLHD

Funding

CESPHN, SLHD