The Ideas of Frantz Fanon and Culturally Safe Practices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Australia

Abstract

Mainstream mental health services in Australia have failed to provide culturally appropriate care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people despite several national reports and policies that have attempted to promote positive service development in response to the calls for change from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. In light of this situation, this article considers the ideas of Frantz Fanon and their potential for promoting cultural safety (Ramsden, 2002) in mainstream mental health services. This article argues that Fanon's ideas provide a conceptual strategy for nurses that prompts reflection and establishes a critical theoretical perspective linking power imbalance and inequitable social relationships in health care, thus complementing the aims of cultural safety. The purpose of this critical reflection is to guide nurses' understanding of the relationship between colonization and health status in order to change their attitudes from those that continue to support current hegemonic practices and systems of health care to those that support the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

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