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Health Information for Multicultural Communities

Event Description

In the 2021 Australian Census, over 7 million people reported that they were born overseas, which is 27.6% of the total Australian population. 5.8 million people said that they used a language other than English at home. 872,000 people indicated that they did not speak English at all or not very well.

Health Information for Multicultural Communities webinar will focus on enhancing knowledge and awareness of multilingual health resources from reliable sources. This webinar will support the professional development for staff working in libraries who service culturally diverse communities. Libraries have a key role in supporting the wellbeing of multilingual communities, servicing local government areas, international students, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. It is important that anyone can find the most reliable, accessible, and current health information when they need it. And if they don’t have the tools or knowledge to do so, then they will turn to the people who they can trust to help them find it, libraries.

Libraries will always continue to do what they always do best: collecting and sharing information with those who need it.

Speakers/Presenters

Dr. Bhuva Narayan
Associate Professor of Digital Social Media at the School of Communication and Director of the PhD programme at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

Dr. Bhuva Narayan is Associate Professor of Digital Social Media at the School of Communication, and Director of the PhD programme at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Previously, she was the Programme Coordinator for the school’s Information and Knowledge Management Programme for over five years. Bhuva is a member of the Research Advisory Committee for the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), and an Associate Editor at the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association (JALIA). Bhuva’s research interests include Human Learning, Health Information Behaviours, Information Avoidance, Digital Literacies, Personal Information Management, Scholarly Communication and Open Access..

Gayathri (Gaya) Dharmagesan
Senior Project Officer
NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service (MHCS)

Gayathri (Gaya) Dharmagesan is a Senior Project Officer at NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service. Gaya has over 25 years of project management expertise in Australia and abroad. Gaya has a wealth of experience working with multicultural and refugee communities both within health and in the community sector and have exceptional skills in co-design of health information with communities. She has been a part of numerous projects, including those focused on COVID-19, Women's Health, Domestic Violence, and Cancer Screening.

Kay Pisel
Library Customer Service Team Leader - Home Lib Sv
City of Newcastle Creative & Community Services

Kay Pisel has experience in public library management and working as a teacher librarian in the education sector. In her current role as the Home Library Service Team Leader at Newcastle Region Libraries, Kay’s focus is in developing a library service that meaningfully engages with older members of the community. An interest in reducing social isolation for seniors led Kay to complete training with the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre and create The Memory Room Project, a social engagement program for people living with dementia. She is passionate about creating opportunities for people living with dementia to actively engage with their community and hopes to encourage public libraries to create and run their own dementia programs.