Changing Lives - Keep your balance

Order form (Note: Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view the order form. If you do not have it installed on your computer download it now and then install it.) Summary of Contents		Changing Lives - Keep your balance is a community education program for women from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) building on women's strengths in dealing with change.  This program have been conducted for the past three years and have involved approximately one hundred and forty (140) women from diverse cultural backgrounds.  It forms part of the Bilingual Community Education (BCE) Program in Women’s Health. Price: $50 per copy of manual. To obtain a copy of Changing Lives - Keep your balance manual please complete and send the order form to: Helen Tourtouras, Area BCE Co-ordinator Bankstown Central Community Health Centre Level 4, Compass Centre Fetherstone Street, Bankstown NSW 2200 Phone No: (02) 9780 2801   Fax No: (02) 9780 2888
Summary of Contents: INTRODUCTION Inequality and injustice are prominent sources of stress and distress affecting women. As women one of our tasks in achieving and maintaining health is to recognise the validity of our own experiences, our perceptions and interests, and to become more powerful in asserting them. If women have more control over the circumstances of their lives they will have greater opportunities to make healthy choices and to have a fairer share of the resources that are linked with better health. Women are subjected to many stresses as a result of their roles within the community and within families. Some of the problems faced by women from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) are common to all women. Others are exacerbated by the immigration process, the loss of family and social supports, and the realities of settling in a country with a different language and different cultural expectations about a woman's role. Prevention is the best treatment for women's emotional and mental illness. In addressing the difficulties associated with change and loss, women in this program are encouraged to examine strategies that are appropriate to their social and cultural needs. The program aims to assist women of non-English speaking backgrounds by providing a safe and supportive environment in which women can explore stressful issues and identify their strengths in dealing with these. GOALS The goal of this program is to improve the mental and emotional health of women of non-English speaking backgrounds by: raising their awareness of stress, its sources and how it affects them. validating their existing skills and resources in dealing with change and managing stress. improving other skills related to social and emotional well-being ie, self-esteem, communication, problem solving. acknowledging their past experience of stress related to migration and change. enabling them to make positive changes to promote social and emotional well-being ie, maintain a healthy diet, increase physical activity, make friends and strengthen social supports.