Grant Proposal for Cultural and Linguistically- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theGrant Proposal for Cultural and Linguistically. Answer: Introduction Background The Cultural and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) women remain highly vulnerable to domestic violence. The suffer from language barriers, fear of authorities as well as social isolations thereby making the CALD one of the NSW one of the most vulnerable cohorts for domestic violence this increased stress, anxiety and Posttraumatic Disorder (PSTD). The lack of interpreters has even further compounded this problem among the at-risk women seeking the protections individually and by looming federal cuts threatening the ability of the domestic violence crisis service to access interpretation services. The CALD women further suffer due to the often danger that violence against women from diverse backgrounds remains simply dismissed and ignored as a foreign culture problem. Problem Statement The target population of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) women in NSW are shown to be disadvantaged in terms of mental healthcare and are among the group of people who are over represented and treated involuntarily or admitted for acute inpatient mental healthcare in hospitals around NSW. They are a population who are only likely to access mental health care when they become acutely and seriously unwell (Mental Health in Multicultural Australia, 2014) and the NHMRC of Australia states that a more effective response is needed if Australia is to meet the physical activity needs of CALD women in order to increase their mental health status, prevent mental illness and reduce the burden of disease (NHMRC, 2005) due to the high prevalence of the problem. Currently in NSW perinatal mental health of women from CALD backgrounds is a priority area as women are more likely to experience these conditions during pregnancy and the perinatal period the year following the birth of a baby. All pregnant women presenting to government health services in NSW are screened for mental illness, regardless of background or race. However, this is not enough and more needs to be done to provide culturally appropriate primary mental health services for CALD women throughout their lifecycle as too many are falling through the gaps and as a result have become an underserved population. It is also unacceptable that CALD women are underserved because Australia is a high income country where appropriate mental health care should be accessible to everyone. Mental health in Australia is a national health priority area (Dept of Finance, 2016) but resources arent being targeted efficiently or effectively to support people with mental illness, particularly the CALD population. Service providers are unanimous that more physical activity programs designed specifically for CALD women need to be provided and that existing services need to extend their reach in response to the needs of CALD women (Cristina M Caperchione, 2011). Purpose The purpose of this study is to use dance therapy as an intervention to provide a culturally suitable primary mental health services for the CALD women throughout their lifestyle to prevent them from falling through gaps which lead them to being underserved populace. It will further help target the resources in NSW efficiently and effectively to support the CALD women with mental illness, anxiety, stress and even PSTD. Thus it will specifically design a dance therapy program for CALD women in a manner that further extends the prevailing services to effectively respond to the CALD women needs thereby effectively reconnecting the CALD women population to the preferred sense of self and integrated values. Aim This study aims at getting a grant that will help establish a dance therapy program to help the suffering CALD women cope with mental illness, anxiety, stress, and even PSTD that have emerged from the violence they have faced in the past countries of origin and have continued to face in NSW despite having moved in to seek for safety and refuge. General Objective To establish the relationship between dance therapy and copying with trauma and mental illness Specific Objective To find out whether dance therapy can help effectively cope with PTSD and anxiety amongst the CALD women To establish whether dance therapy can help enhance quality of life, wellbeing, mood affect and body image among the CALD women Research Questions Can a dance program bring about a therapeutic positive outcome in response to overwhelming trauma and mental health issues? Significance of Study The study is significance because it focuses on helping the CALD women who have and continue to face challenges in NSW despite having gone there as a place to seek for safety and refugee. It aims at using the dance therapy as an intervention to offer the support needed by the women from CALD backgrounds to cope with mental illness, stress, anxiety and PSTD. In practical terms, CALD women need to be listened to in a confidential as well as non-judgmental context to be suitably supported/referred, as well as to receive info in an accessible style. In essence, this is exactly what this study aims at achieving. Behind its obvious simplicity, efficient service delivery remains deceptively compounded. CALD women survivors of sexual violence, torture or trauma could have limited abilities to speak to daily challenges of life including settlements, education, adjustment, and family, leave alone accessibility to therapeutic assistance. It could appear infeasible for CALD women to move on with their lives, especially where they gone beyond survival mode and have acquired freedom to connect with previous memories in a country that avails diverse levels of physical safety (Shepherd, 2016). The studies have shown that the initial step in helping and supporting the CALD background victims is to assist in coping with the psychological effects of living in such elongated uncertainty which this study seeks to do via dance therapy. Trauma memories remain flashbacks to eras which most violated personal integrity: The feelings, thoughts and physical sensations of the moment become re-experienced in the present. Such memories stay outside normal memory and are never incorporated with what the CALD women currently know. Accordingly, CADL women keep the guilt, anger, shame, fear, humiliation, helplessness, dissociation, horror fresh as well as alive. The CALD woman remains assaulted by them whenever a trauma memories intrude and this disconnects such women from reality of who they presently are. Thus this study will be significance amongst the CALD women as it seeks to focus at the reconnection of this population to the preferred sense of self alongside integrated values. This is because the dance therapists will be obliged to listen to the unspeakable to help the CALD women to unlock the trauma. This because the dance therapist will never refuse to listen because doing so would have the effect of maintaining the conspiracy of silence and stories remaining continuously unspoken. Thus, the therapist will greatly assist the CALD women by being aware of such issues of a responsible counselling or contact, self-care, self-awareness alongside capacity of sitting with CALD women at their individual pace and on their individual terms instead of those of practitioner. The dance therapist will also be aware of the need to understand the r elationship between logic of thinking and culture which remains pivotal, and be aware that if never attended to, could lead to severe misunderstandings as well as conflicts. Literature Review The ancient philosophy of the African Village is based on a very strong belief in inclusiveness where music and dance are highly regarded as forms of healing and are integrated to form part of everyday life (Meekums, 2005). The Round Hut Village Dance Program for Women is a simple: counsellor lead primary mental healthcare program that incorporates traditional dancing not only from Africa but from the various CALD backgrounds of the women participants. The program includes evidence based counselling and screening for domestic violence and mental illness, together with health education, health promotion and illness prevention which coincidentally are all activities of the philosophy of the African village traditions. Increased physical activity is well known as an enabler of health and wellbeing for women of all cultures (Cristina, 2011) and it is accepted that physical activity is associated with improved psychological wellbeing in that it reduces stress, anxiety and depression (Payn e, 2003). There is strong evidence that community participation is especially important when engaging with CALD consumers (Queensland Transcultural Mental Health Centre Multicultural Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2006) and there are plenty of physical activity programs available in Sydney, ranging in price and provided by a range of government and non-government organizations. Some are offered free of cost or for a very small fee by local councils for eligible women, such as walking groups for new mothers, tai chi, and yoga. CALD women, however, may not even be aware of physical activity programs at all because they are marketed in English and many CALD women are illiterate in English. (Cristina M. Caperchione, 2009) Many CALD women are also illiterate in their own language even if programs were marketed in their language. (Cristina M Caperchione, 2011) The needs of CALD women vary and many physical activity programs are considered inappropriate for minority cultural groups for several reasons including; mainstream physical activities at gymnasiums are inappropriate because some CALD women cannot be in the same building as men when exercising and the exercises themselves are considered inappropriate. Access to programs is a barrier also with lack of transport and the expense involved with travelling and childcare costs was reported as the biggest barrier to attending physical activity programs. (Cristina M Caperchione, 2011) Problems with cold settings that inhibit the development of rapport, have been reported as a barrier. Methodology Research Design Formative research was undertaken to define the need for the program, to find potential solutions and explore feasibility of different intervention methods. A literature review of published studies and an analysis of possible interventions was carried out to guide the selection of specific interventions to be used for best practice to achieve change. Evidence of effectiveness already exists for all elements of the program. Theoretical underpinnings of counselling methods, physical activity programs, health education, and health screening have all been assessed as effective in community and other settings. The design of the program, the plan of the program, and the sequencing of the activities to achieve maximum effect are innovative. The proposed is comprehensive intervention design for The Round Hut Village Dance Program for Women is informed by the philosophy of African Village culture traditions whereby villagers were required to meet routinely once a week in the main Round Hut for mental health purposes as part of their way of life. A counsellor would lead the meetings and community members would tell the counsellor about any concerns or problems they were experiencing and the counsellor would recommend solutions and give advice (Jeong et al., 2005). Community members were also expected to help each other in terms of them having had the same, or similar, problems or concerns and who could relate to and help others through a shared experience model The traditions of the Round Hut Village culture are centuries old and there are no written records of village life but resident Africans in Australia attest to the model. Traditionally these regular meetings have three activities, carried out consecutively. Adherence to the structure of the meeting is a formal practice and an important feature of the African method to maintain wellbeing. The intervention is community based and counsellor lead and uses a behavior change model of health promotion combined with increasing physical activity through dance and music. Social activities such as sharing a meal and taking time to talk and listen with others in the community are an important part of the program (Chan, 2014). Working Hypothesis Dance therapy can help reduce anxiety and effectively help CALD women cope with PST Study area and Target Population The target population is the CALD women living in NSW. The CALD women are those female individuals from a range of different countries, races and ethnicities, who are speaking different languages and follow different political, religious, and philosophical beliefs in NSW. The women from CALD backgrounds have distinctly diverse needs as they live in Australian community. A great number of these women have witnessed violence in one way or the other including rape, sexual assault, civil unrest, war amongst other kinds of conflicts in their lifespan journey. Most of them have spent a great percentage of their time in detention camps or refugee camps that lead to physical, mental as well as sexual health conditions. Upon arrival in Australia, a convergence of variables enhances the risk of both physical and sexual violence for CALD women. Lack of support networks, community pressure, socio-economic disadvantage, and lack of knowledge regarding rights for victims top the list of such converging factors. The issues of planning to quit a relationship with a violent partner becomes a foolhardy undertaking as the issue of finance increasingly become paramount and even those CALD women sponsored to come to NSW/holding a visa with limited rights could lack access to health care/income support and hence ineligible to work whereas their applications for residence are under considerations. They are thus hesitant to report violence against them as a result of fear of deportation threat hence will remain agonizing the effects of PSTD, stress and anxiety. Many CALD women fear they could deported and face additional, and maybe enhanced, persecution. The lack of access to accurate info among the CALD women compounds such a fear. Thus, CALD women are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation sexually alongside added abuse in the absence of income and as a result of measure they have to take to simply survive. Some of the CALD women could be at extreme risks of sexual violence from even strategies due to cultural stereotyping or partake either forcible/willingly in promiscuity. They are also harassed in the labor force setting which genuinely pose continuing risks to both physical and psychological safety of CALD women already susceptible and probably traumatized. They have also cited an extra pressure to keep paid employment as a result of financial needs as well as tensions which financial issues could raise with spouses. Such a pressure further generates from the hurdle in landing a job as a result of discrimination, lack of experience, racism and limited English-language fluency. Within the broader social CALD women face discrimi nation and are always devalued as well as disempowered within the NSW societies in which they sought safety (LaVine, 2015). Sampling Technique The sampling technique adopted for this study was random sampling. The randomized control trials was used. The CALD women sample frame was all pregnant CALD women presenting to government health services in NSW who had been screened for mental illness, regardless of background or race. From this sample frame, 200 CALD women were recruited for the study. They included CALD women from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. A randomized control trial (RCT) was used to allocate these CALD women at random to receive the dance therapy intervention (Koch, Kunz, Lykou Cruz, 2014). There was a standard of comparison or control. The control was a standard practice, a placebo (dance therapy) and the other group had no intervention at all. The RCT was used because it enabled effective measurement and comparison of outcomes after the dance therapy participation receptions. Since the outcomes are measured this was a quantitative study. The RCT being a quantitative, comparative, controlled experiments enabled effective investigations of two interventions in a series of CALD women who receive such interventions in random manner. It was simplest and most powerful technique in this clinical research (Meekums, Karkou Nelson, 2015). Outcome Measures The outcome measures focused at comparing the behavior of the CALD women who receive the intervention (dance therapy) and those who never received the therapy, control group. This was based on reduction in anxiety, stress, PSTD and ability to cope with mental illnesses. Recruitment/ Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria The recruitment of the participants for this study was based on the sample frame of all pregnant CALD women drawn all pregnant CALD women presenting to government health services in NSW who had been screened for mental illness, regardless of background or race. The participants would only be included in the study if they were CALD women, they had been screened for mental illness and had not participated in dance therapy in the past. They would otherwise been excluded if they had participated in the dance therapy before, if they were not pregnant and if they had not been screened for mental illness (Scharoun, Reinders, Bryden Fletcher, 2014). The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) was instrumental in helping know the classification of the mental illness. By using DSM-5 enabled the identification of various classification of mental illness as it incorporated all the updated changes based on diagnostic criteria and codes (Flood Peretz, 2016). Discussion The family and environment greatly impacts on the ability of the mentally ill CALD women to cope. Those women who still face problems in their marriage even after undergoing through violence experience in their countries of origin have more severe PSTD, anxiety and stress and this prolongs the healing process (DiGiacomo, Green, Rodrigues, Mulligan Davidson, 2015). On the other hand, those CALD women who have working relationships with their partners after marriage are able to heal faster as they no experience does not resurface frequently when they have a peaceful family. The safer environment will promote the loss of bad memories amongst the CALD women unlike the unsafe environment with continued forms of violence. The CALD women expect that the country in which they seek safety will be safer than their countries of origin and hence if this hold, then they are able to reconnect effectively. The motional, abuse, sexual or domestic violence, and neglect have been rampant amongst the CALD women both in their countries of origin and in NSW where they have sought safety and refuge. The abuse of CALD women persist even in NSW because of several factors including the fear of deportation and lack of awareness of their rights, financial hurdles and even discrimination at workplaces. Thus these women do not report their continued violence and neglect because they want to survive. The result is that CALD women remain trapped in endless anxiety, stress, and PSTD and un-healed mental illness (Hildebrandt, Koch Fuchs, 2016). There was an apparent difference in CALD womens behaviors before and after dance therapy (expressive) based control and intervention groups. CALD women who received the intervention had a therapeutic positive outcome in response to overwhelming trauma and mental health issues unlike those in the control group. For example, CALD women who received the therapy reported reduced anxiety, stress and PSTD. They indicated that they were then able to cope with their mental illness and that they had known their rights and would no longer fear of being deported when they report the violence, discrimination, neglect and sexual abuse against them. On the other hand, the CALD women in the control showed no positive behavior change and were still trapped in anxiety, stress and inability to cope well with their mental illness (Peled, Shpunt, Manor, Brozgol, Ezra, Hezi Gurevich, 2016). From the interventions outcome, it is clear that dance therapy can be used to trigger a therapeutic positive outcome in response to overwhelming trauma and mental health issues. Thus, it will be used if this program is fully funded to prevent other problems like depressions, self-harm, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, reducing physical illness, increases interactions with family and friends, improved life style, reduces PTSD. The program will use CBT, DBT, and DSM 5 focusing on directly on the underlying causes of such additional problems in a proactive manner to prevent them amongst the CALD women (Serlin, 2010). This is based on the realization that when anxiety strikes, the response accorded to it is crucial in determining the further problems that ensue. Turning on the music and dance has been cited as one that might seem far-fetched, yet psychologists and therapists have cited it as being effective response. As one dance, he will be witnessing release, self-expression and frequently, joy (Flood, 2013). Thus treatment of anxiety by therapists have sorted to dance therapy as a potential to act as an efficient and effective treatment for anxiety as dance can bot h be an outlet for creativity and a mechanism of accessing a peaceful minds state (Chang, 2015). Therapist uses dance as expressive movement and breathing thereby deflating hyper-aroused thoughts stopping CALD women from thinking about outrageous experiences (Chaiklin Wengrower, 2015). Dance movement thus brings anxious CALD women back to a more primitive, and subsequently, more liberated state of mind. It triggers CALD womens thoug ht to simplify, to focus on their bodies as well as their movement rather than of more compounded life stressors (Chaiklin Wengrower, 2015). The goal of Dance therapy treatment and approaches including reduction in symptoms of anxiety, depression, self-harm thus will help CALD women to cope with severe anxiety, mental and physical trauma, depression as well as substance dependence. The therapist will guide the CALD women via well-structured improvisational body movement. This implies, whereas CALD women are never limited to a stringent routine, they are guided towards body awareness, body image exercises, inner focus work, circle dances as well as tension alongside release exercises. Thus movements are the major assessment as well as mode of dance therapy interventions (Caperchione, Kolt, Tennent Mummery, 2011). The treatment-for stability and rehabilitation will thus follow as the participants will receive the therapy in a continual manner and this with time will help them recover from mental illness, anxiety and even PSTD. Other medical treatment will ensure specific to DSM-5 classification of mental illness and treatment amongst the CALD women based on this program free of charge once the fund is given to increase healthcare access (Koch, Mehl, Sobanski, Sieber Fuchs, 2015). In regards to Public policy-in research trauma, dance therapy can be restorative experience when dealing with CALD women PTSD alongside other kinds of trauma. It will provide mechanisms with which the therapist will test reality, to be more grounded, to reach otherwise lost positive body memories, and above all, reclaim CALD womens own bodies. However, there are specific group that can benefit from dance movement therapy healing powers (Bradt, Shim Goodill, 2015). In respect of the dance program (expression), various studies have affirmed that dance movement therapy has been affirmed to reduce anxiety among CALD women with shy demeanors and who need a little extra assistance arising from their shells including those agonizing from depression and anxiety in social contexts. The dance therapy has enhanced self-expression and confidence in CALD women who are socially anxious, eventually boosting their ability to feel increasingly comfortable in contexts that encompass interactions with others (Karkou Meekums, 2014). The creative dance movement therapies have been shifting CALD womens focus alongside regulating and controlling overwhelming emotions as well as thoughts-particularly for CALD women struggling with PSTD as it improves awareness of bodies and emotions. Thus, therapy-difference in persons behavior and personal state of mind and body will greatly save money for the government (Allimant Ostapiej-Piatkowski, 2011). This is because the pe rsonality saves money for government as CALD women will be effectively and efficiently cared for in groups rather than costly individualized-centeredness therapeutics. It is upon this background that this proposal for grant needs to be approved as based on the budget already drawn as capture in the appendix. This grant award will not only benefit the CALD women, but will also save money for the government. It is thus my humbled prayer that this grant be awarded as the cost-benefit anlysis validates that it has more benefits than costs. 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