Improving cultural understanding through new series

As part of our ongoing commitment to working with patients, families and students to provide high-quality specialist mental healthcare, we recently held a cultural awareness event for staff about the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities and the similarities between them.

It involved an in-conversation discussion with two of our Cypriot staff: Sezer Fahri, a specialist Systemic and Family Psychotherapist and Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Emilios Lemoniatis.

In their discussion, Sezer and Emilios focussed on the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities in north London, the colonial legacy which resulted in the division of two communities and how they “congregated again as a community [in London], whereas the people in Cyprus have stayed frozen in separation.”

Reflecting on the event, Emilios said “Hopefully, people who [attended] the talk will be able to approach situations that involve our culture with some greater insights and perhaps some markers from which to develop their own curiosity. It also helped bring together other people from similar cultures to the event, which surprised me just how much cultural diversity and resource to draw upon we have already within our staff group.”

Cultural awareness series

This event was part of our ‘cultural awareness’ talk series, where we invite staff and students to talk about their cultures, experiences and give insight into the different communities we serve.

These cultural awareness talks include discussions on race, family life, child rearing, religion, gender roles and sexuality. These are themes which many of us relate to and which impact our lives every day, both at home and in the workplace. Whilst some of the talks speak more broadly about certain communities, others feature first-hand accounts, with staff and students discussing their lived experiences.

Previous events have ranged from exploring the cultural and religious practices in the Bengali community to assessing the role that social class plays in day-to-day life in England.

Whilst the Tavistock and Portman offers specialist mental health services for people across the country, we are based in north London – a culturally and religiously diverse area. We are committed to celebrating and giving a voice to all cultural and ethnic groups and this series enables our staff to gain vital cultural knowledge and understanding, helping them to improve as practitioners and provide better services to patients and students.

Chief Nursing Officer, Clare Scott, recognises the importance of cultural competence in healthcare:

“Our cultural awareness series also helps to improve health literacy, which NHS England has strongly advocated for. Health literacy is an individual’s ability to understand health information and make informed decisions about their health and care. By attending our monthly talks, staff will learn how best to communicate with people from various walks of life. This will then ensure that their patients fully understand health concepts which may otherwise have been misunderstood. The patients will then be able to make informed decisions about their health and care – demonstrating an improvement in health literacy”