‘My body. My health.’ is a series of presentations to help educators explain important health information to migrant and refugee women. The presentations are written in plain English and translated into community languages, so they’re easy to understand and use.
We worked with women from migrant and refugee communities, health service providers, clinicians and multicultural health organisations to ensure the presentations include relevant and useful information.
The presentations encourage women to talk about good health and how they can prevent certain health conditions in the future.
We will continue to develop new presentations on other health topics as needed.
When we developed these presentations, we were mindful of the barriers women from migrant and refugee backgrounds face in accessing good health care.
We were also conscious of different cultural beliefs, sensitivities, misconceptions and negative past experiences that may stop some women from seeking help.
With this in mind, we included suggestions for group discussions and detailed facilitator notes in the presentations.
The ‘My body. My health.’ presentations can be used by anyone who delivers health education to women from migrant and refugee backgrounds. For example, health professionals, health educators and bicultural workers.
We recommend you read through the presentation, including the notes, before running a session. Some messages in the presentations might not be appropriate for certain cultures, so it’s a good idea to think about different words or ways to explain information.
The presentations can be delivered to an individual or a group. They can also be delivered in full or in sections. A longer presentation might take about 45 minutes and a shorter presentation might take about 15 minutes. The ‘Health checks’ or ‘Sexual health and healthy relationships’ presentations might take about 60 minutes, but they can be broken up into shorter presentations.
It’s important to include relevant information about local services and referral pathways, especially if women find some messages confronting or upsetting.
When planning a session, find a space that’s private and accessible. You can deliver the presentations using PowerPoint on your laptop (or with a projector). You can also print the presentation slides and read through them with participants.
Providing related information may help participants understand the presentation. We have a range of women’s health resources, including fact sheets in community languages, videos in English and community languages, Easy Read fact sheets and posters.
You can also visit the Health Translations website to find resources in community languages.
We welcome your feedback. Tell us what you like about the ‘My body. My health.’ presentations and what we could do better. We’d also love to hear about your experience delivering the presentations. Please email [email protected].
Evidence and medical knowledge is constantly changing. The authors have taken care to ensure that the information on this page is accurate and up to date at the time it was created. This content is intended for healthcare professionals who should always manage patients within their scope of practice and work within local policies and practices. This content is not intended for members of the general public.