Cross-cultural mental health guide

In an increasingly multicultural Australia, a medical practitioner is called upon, on a daily basis, to treat patients from diverse cultural backgrounds: migrants, refugees, students from other cultures and Indigenous people. This cultural diversity extends to differences in social status, age, religion, sexual orientation and many other sociodemographic aspects. A medical consultation across the cultural divide is fraught with the risk of miscommunication. Jill Benson and Jill Thistlethwaite, in this small information-packed volume, provide an antidote to such a predicament. Both authors are doctors who have worked in diverse settings in Australia and overseas, have treated patients from many different cultural backgrounds, are knowledgeable about diverse cultures and sensitive to differences, recognise the importance of mental health consultations in general practice, and take a keen interest in their patients’ stories.