JCPSLP Vol 19 No 1 March 2017

Communication and connection: Valuing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives

engagement required for therapeutic interventions. The families described were parenting in adverse circumstances with multiple and complex needs. Despite indications of developmental delay, or neglect and abuse, a number of the children referred to the program had not been assessed or treated by the multiple community services. Their problems lie below the “threshold for statutory intervention” until a crisis occurs. The cases also reveal the lack of coordinated support for parents, which compromise

the care they are able to provide, particularly at critical transitions, e.g., family reunification. The authors note the lack of integration between service systems – health care, education, NGOs and child protection – which form a frayed patchwork of services exacerbated by fly-in fly-out service delivery. The authors call for integrated services that are grounded in the communities. In particular, they advocate for preventative engagement with families over time rather than as response to crisis.

Resource review

in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, models of health, intercultural interactions and current workforce issues. One chapter is also dedicated to Indigenous health in a global context which provides comparison and discussion of health care service delivery and the health status of Indigenous populations in Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America. The final chapter covers one of the most important components of cultural safety: reflection on practice. Of greatest value in this book are

Taylor, K., & Guerin, P. (2014). Health care and Indigenous Australians: Cultural safety in practice (2nd ed.). South Yarra, Vic.: Palgrave Macmillan; pp. 220; ISBN-13: 9781420256871; $72.95; http://www. palgravemacmillan.com.au Frances Cochrane

Cultural safety “requires care to be determined by the recipient of care. It is not restricted to culture as indicated by ethnicity. It requires health professionals to reflect on their own cultural identify and on their relative power as a healthcare provider” (p. 11). Taylor and Guerin’s second edition of Health Care and Indigenous Australians: Cultural Safety in Practice provides an invaluable resource for all health professionals and students. This easy-to-read book introduces the concept of cultural safety in relation to Indigenous health issues and is an excellent starting point for clinicians and students for understanding this sometimes complex area and also how to apply the principles to everyday practice. As

the thoughtfully constructed scenarios, learning and critical thinking activities embedded within each chapter. A wide variety of resources including directions to websites, DVDs and readings are also included in each chapter. The authors have also considered how the content and activities can be applied to the reader’s local context, by providing “Making it local” suggestions within each chapter for contemplation by the reader. For example, the authors challenge the reader to find out information such as the traditional land where the reader lives and local health issues and their contributing

factors. Readers are also encouraged to identify possible experiences of institutional racism during student clinical placement, and become familiar with local Indigenous controlled health services. For speech pathologists, topics of particular interest include ageing, dementia and disability, and the influence of Indigenous health beliefs for these areas of practice. Intercultural assessments are also discussed, particularly the “cultural bias that renders most standardised tests ineffective or inappropriate” (p. 100) for Aboriginal Australians. One of the activities in this section requires readers to review current assessment tools, to identify any cultural bias in these tools and what the consequences of this bias may be for assessment. The section on “Communication with Indigenous language speakers” also warrants attention from speech pathologists. Included in this section are subtopics exploring body language, health literacy and rapport development. Overall, this book is an excellent foundational resource for all practising health professionals, students and education providers.

highlighted by the authors, health professionals have the opportunity to contribute to enhancing health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through creating culturally safe environments. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council and the Royal College of Nursing have endorsed the cultural safety approach outlined in this book. Both authors have considerable experience in intercultural health care practice and working in remote communities of Australia. Although nursing professionals are the primary audience of this book, the content, reflection activities, scenarios and critical thinking tasks are able to be easily applied to all health professionals, including speech pathologists. This second edition includes statistical and models-of-care updates, as well as the inclusion of chapters on health policies related to these populations and Indigenous health priorities. The 14 chapters in the book address topics such as definitions and terminologies, cultural frameworks for health, determinants of health, the current status of health

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JCPSLP Volume 19, Number 1 2017

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology