An introduction to this year's C the Whole Story theme
When we talk about “culturally safe” hepatitis C virus (HCV) care, what do we really mean? And how can creating a culturally safe environment improve treatment outcomes for people living with HCV? These questions form the foundation of this year’s C the Whole Story Forum, where we’ll ask attendees to look beyond traditional understandings of culturally safe HCV care, and consider if our current approaches are truly meeting the needs of the community.
Ahead of the forum, we spoke to Collins Adu (PhD Candidate, Centre for Social Research in Health and the Social Policy Research Centre University of New South Wales) and Carla Treloar (Professor and Deputy Director, Centre for Social Research in Health and the Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales), who are leading the opening plenary, on what culturally safe hepatitis C care means in 2026.
For Collins, cultural safety is about going beyond just cultural awareness and instead examining and interrogating how the system can best support people to engage, and stay engaged, with it.
“Cultural safety means creating an environment where patients feel seen, respected, and free from discrimination based on their identity, background, or lived experience,” he says.
“It must always be defined by the patient, not the healthcare provider. Cultural safety directly strengthens person-centred care by shifting power. It asks us, as healthcare providers, to reflect on our own biases and adapt our practice, rather than asking the patient to assimilate into the system.”
Similarly, Carla explains that reframing a culturally safe approach to HCV care requires an organisational commitment to improving quality of care.
“Services may be providing excellent quality in terms of technical care – but this doesn’t do the job if people don’t feel comfortable to approach the service or come back to the service. So quality care for HCV encompasses the point of view of the person receiving care – what is quality care and safe care for them?” she says.
Person-centred care isn’t a one-size fits all approach, instead it requires health services and health systems to have a dynamic approach to their provision of HCV care, says Carla. However, a key principle of creating culturally safe and person-centred care is to prioritise reducing stigma.
“Stigma has been a defining characteristic of the experience of HCV, and HCV care, for many people,” says Carla.
“What makes a service safe to approach might be unique to each individual. For some, it might mean the ability to access HCV care outside of a formal health setting. It could mean working with peer workers to build health literacy around HCV and to build trust in the clinicians who will be involved with care. It could mean negotiating how HCV treatment is talked about so that individuals have a way to protect their personal information and prevent unwanted disclosure.”
Achieving this requires healthcare professionals to acknowledge that culturally safe person-centred care is an ongoing commitment, not a single and fixed endpoint.
“Culturally responsive care must be embedded in how services are designed, delivered, and evaluated by using multilingual health resources, training staff to understand migration and acculturation stress, and partnering with trusted community organisations,” explains Collins.
“When patients experience cultural responsiveness at the point of entry, they return for further care. That continuity of care enables early testing, treatment adherence, and ultimately STI prevention.”
When trust is fostered, and barriers to access are removed, culturally safe care can significantly improve patient engagement and health outcomes, something Collins has seen first-hand.
“Drawing on both my practice in the sexual health clinic and research, I find that culturally safe services produce better health outcomes,” he says.
“Patients are more likely to disclose risk behaviours, symptoms, and status when they trust that the environment is non-judgemental and confidential. Greater community trust develops when services visibly include CALD communities, building long-term credibility that extends beyond the service into community networks. Overall, health literacy improves, enabling people to understand and act on health information.”
To learn more about how to put culturally safe care into practice, register now for C the Whole Story Forum IV: Reframing Cultural Safety to Strengthen Person-Centred Care, where both Collins and Carla will be leading the plenary session titled Reframing Cultural Safety to Strengthen Person-Centred Care.
