Conference 2021

The Cultural Diversity in Ageing Conference 2021 was held on Thursday 17 June. It was first time in its 16 year history it was held on virtual platform.

The theme, Care to Communicate – Hearing the voices of older, showcased the ways in which the aged care sector can garner the voices of older people to shape a more equitable aged care system, now and into the future.

Keynote presentations and panel discussions features the following themes:

  • The importance of involving older people in the design, delivery and implementation of aged care services
  • Increasing the visibility of older people through story-telling
  • Inclusive strategies that promote better representation for older people to provide feedback to government on aged care services
  • Innovations in language services and resources
  • Good practice examples from leaders in the aged care sector that promote inclusive services
  • The Conference provided a platform for policy makers, aged care service managers and leaders to explore how they can work towards implementing organisation wide initiatives that ensure the needs of older people from diverse backgrounds are met.

View all our presentations on video by clicking on them below:

Conference Welcome and Introduction

Tasneem Chopra
Cross Cultural Consultant OAM and Moderator for the Conference

Consumers as partners – Co-designing home care services with Aboriginal elders

Presentation

Toby talks about way in which Booraja, which provides home care services to Aboriginal Elders from Batemans Bay to Narooma in NSW has allowed Elders to maintain their lifestyle and connection to culture and country, while helping them stay independent and at home for longer.

Toby Dawson
Head of Strategic Partnerships
IRT Group

Alone Together – Communicating the needs and experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse older people in a creative way during COVID19

Keynote

In this presentation, Ruth discusses a study undertaken during COVID-19 inviting older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to share their experiences of social connectedness, accessing health and social services and using technology. These research findings were converted into an accessible and appealing visual form, so participants could see themselves. Ruth suggests that sharing findings in this way can facilitate empathic engagement, reflection, and dialogue to change practice, policy, education and community attitudes in an era of COVID ageism.

Dr Ruth De Souza RN, PhD, FACN
Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow School of Art, College of Design and Social Context
RMIT University

Q and A session and invitations to share good practice

Audience Participation

This session involved responding to questions and comments from the audience and will invite them to share ideas and examples of good practice.

Tasneem Chopra
Cross Cultural Consultant OAM and Moderator for the Conference

A Fair Go – Increasing participation in aged care services for older people from culturally diverse backgrounds

Keynote

Elizabeth highlighted the importance of innovation and creativity in gathering feedback of older people from diverse culturally backgrounds into shaping the aged care sector. Elizabeth will draw upon culturally inclusive approaches to consulting with diverse older people and highlighting how a “one size fits all” approach to consumer consultation in aged care can exclude valuable input from older people.

Elizabeth Drozd
Chief Executive Officer
Australian-Multicultural Community Services

Increasing linguistic diversity of aged care staff through consumer language lessons

Stories to Inspire

Jacinta and Rebeca discussed the successes of the Italian Language Class project which commenced in June 2020 at Medical and Aged Care group's Residential Facility in Melbourne's Northern region entitled Northern Gardens. The Italian class is a cultural exchange promoting connection and relationships as well as giving older people the opportunity to share their strengths. Teaching Italian is now a weekly Friday class and residents have expressed feeling motivated to share their language, culture, and traditions. Italian letters & videos are also exchanged with Italian preschool children.

Jacinta Jarutis
Group Lifestyle Coordinator
Medical and Aged Care Group

Rebeca G. Portero
Lifestyle Team Leader
Medical and Aged Care Group


Cross cultural communication

Workshop

This presentation aimed to equip staff working within the aged care sector with the knowledge and skills in communicating effectively with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Some of the key themes include enabling participants to understand the impact of culture on communication, teamwork and client interactions and providing a framework to understand cultural similarities and differences and how this impacts cross-cultural interactions.

Dr Tom Verghese
Founder
Cultural Synergies

Panel Discussion

This panel discussion featured innovative developments in language service programs, research and resources.

Dr Katrina Long
School of Primary and Allied Health Care
Monash University

Dr Jim Hlavac
Senior Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Services
Monash University

Dr Jill Freyne
Deputy Research Director
Australian EHealth Research Centre, CSIRO

Emiliano Zucchi
Director of the Transcultural & Language Services (TALS) department and the Narrun Wilip-giin Aboriginal Support Unit (ASU)
Northern Health

Depicting the lives of people of CALD background in Australia living with dementia

Stories to Inspire

In this presentation, Danijela talked about the book FORGET-ME-NOTS/SPOMINCICE, a bilingual collection of works depicting lives of people from culturally diverse backgrounds in Australia living with dementia and experiencing ageism, disability, isolation and lack of inclusion.

Danijela Hlis
Author, Carer and Advocate

Innovative approaches to inclusive practice by leaders in the aged care sector

Video Launch

Lisa gave an overview of the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing's Innovative Approaches to Inclusive Practice within the Aged Care sector film project, a project showcasing good practice in diversity and inclusion from leaders in the aged care sector.

Lisa Tribuzio
Manager
Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing

Conference Closing

Tasneem Chopra
Cross Cultural Consultant OAM and Moderator for the Conference