Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing E-Newsletter

Issue No. 31 / October 2017

Snapshot of diversity in residential aged care

The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing is proud to announce the release of a new study ‘Ageing in Australia: country of birth and language preferences of residents in aged care facilities’.  The study provides an overview of utilisation rates among people born in non-English-speaking countries and/or who have a preferred language other than English. The results demonstrate a substantial degree of cultural diversity among people living in residential aged care facilities across the nation with over 30,000 (18.3%) people living in residential facilities covering a significant number of countries of birth and languages. The findings confirm the need for a systematic, sector-wide approach to addressing linguistic diversity and for developing policies and procedures in order to cater to the needs and preferences of residents who were born in non-English-speaking countries and/or who prefer to speak a language other than English.

Published in the Australian Health Review, CSIRO Publishing, the paper can be accessed online.

Contact us for further information.

National workshops

Aged care managers and leaders don’t miss your spot in one of our last two Focus on Diversity workshops for the year.

Queensland -  24 October 2017
More information and book online

New South Wales - 15 November 2017
More information and book online

Developed in partnership with the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency the workshop explores ideas and strategies to help your aged care service best meet the needs of consumers from a culturally diverse background.

Here’s what other participants have had to say:

“Very relevant to the aged care sector. The presenter was excellent with a vast array of knowledge and a very good facilitator.” (NSW participant)

“This is an excellent training session and would be of benefit to many in the industry and to assessors. It was excellent doing this course with representatives from the industry who shared their experiences. I have gained additional knowledge and skills which will be very helpful when out working with the aged care sector” (NSW participant)

Victorian Workshops

The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing is working in partnership with LASA Victoria to deliver Cultural Diversity in Aged Care workshops. These workshops are designed for clinical staff, care managers, case managers, assessment officers and pastoral care staff working in residential aged care and home care settings.

Follow the links below for more details:

Friday 27th October 2017

Tuesday 21st November 2017

Online Cross-Cultural Care Program for Aged Care Staff

The Cross-Cultural Care Program for Aged Care Staff is an online training program aimed at supporting staff to provide high-quality cross-cultural care for residents and to improve team cohesion. This program includes 5 learning modules and Work related English Language Resources for Staff.

Based on a research project entitled ‘Developing the multicultural workforce to improve the quality of care for residents’, the program is the result of a partnership between Flinders University, Resthaven Inc. and AnglicareSA Inc. and funded by the Australian Government Department of Health.

The program is available on the Flinders University website.

Access and Support Service in Victoria

The Access and Support service aims to achieve improved access for people eligible for aged care and ageing services by providing episodic support at key stages of the care pathway as the person navigates the service system. This is a free service.

The role provides support to individuals who lack the knowledge or confidence to access aged care and other services, or are concerned that the service response will not meet their needs.

Access and support workers are located at organisations such as multicultural or ethno-specific agencies, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), homelessness services or other agencies such as community health services, health services and local councils where there is a demonstrated need for such a position.

For a list of Access and Support workers in your area visit the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV) website.

For further information contact Gabriele Rukas, Sectoral Development Officer, Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria on 03 9354 9555 or grukas@eccv.org.au.

Speak My Language about aged care

The Ethnic Communities Council of New South Wales recently launched a new project which aims to facilitate access to aged care information for people who speak languages other than English.

The project will include the delivery of on-air discussions about aged care options in over 25 languages across 80 Ethnic radio stations, across 4 states including NSW, Victoria and Queensland. The project will reach an audience of over 50,000 people per week, who will also have access to several technological based solutions such as live webinars, podcasts and interactive websites to link them to the right information.

Read more

Metastatic Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer Network Australia have developed information booklets about metastatic breast cancer in Greek, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. The materials are presented in both written and audio-visual formats.

Read more

Multilingual information

Department of Human Services has published information about the range of payments and services available from the department into 67 languages.

Read more

My Aged Care multilingual resources

The Australian Government’s My Aged Care website has information available in 18 languages.

Consumers can also call My Aged Care via Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) free of charge. 

Read more

Interpreting services for aged care services

Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) can be used to assist consumers with understanding the Home Care Packages Programme, including their home care agreement, care plan, individualised budget and monthly statements, at no cost to them. When accessing TIS National, providers will need to quote their unique client code. If a provider is unsure of their client code, they can contact TIS National directly on 1300 655 820.

Read more

NARI Innovation Grants

The National Ageing Research Institute has been awarded over $2million for 3 research projects that will support service innovation in aged and dementia care. The projects are diverse, and include the development of technology to enable people with dementia from CALD backgrounds to communicate easily, exploring how art centres in remote communities can link older people to services under consumer directed care, and trialling videoconferencing technology with interpreters for aged care assessments.

Read more

GEN Aged Care Data

GEN Aged Care Data is a comprehensive “one–stop shop” for data and information about aged care services in Australia. It reports on capacity and activity in the aged care system focusing on the people, their care assessments and the services they use.

The data includes a number of factsheets and infographics on topics such as Admissions into aged care; People using aged care and People’s care needs in aged care.

Read more

Jewish Care

Congratulations to Jewish Care Victoria for receiving a Best Practice Commendation Award from the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency at the Better Practice conference in Sydney on 17 August 2017. 

The award was received for Jewish Care’s unique and innovative customer satisfaction survey methodology that was developed four years ago by its Research Quality Innovation and Policy Unit. The survey methodology is used to obtain, understand and report on the client and resident experience of the various services Jewish Care provides.

Read more

Bolton Clarke

Congratulations to Bolton Clarke for being recognized as a leader in partnering with consumers from diverse backgrounds at the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency’s 2017 Better Practice Awards.
The award, for the organisation’s Partnering with Consumers for Diversity Model, a consumer engagement model, which was developed and tested over 10 years. The model involves collaborating with community organisations and working with focus groups of consumers with shared diversity characteristics to develop targeted information resources that help improve health literacy, health and wellbeing.

Read more

We are delighted to have been invited to speak at Advancing Community Cohesion Conference. The paper entitled ‘Ageing in Australia - a Time of Exclusion for Many’ will be presented by Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing Manager, Ljubica Petrov. 

The Conference will bring together Australian and international delegates to consider the broad range of challenges to social cohesion.  Delegates will include government ministers and senior government officials, academics and researchers from universities and research centres, leaders and practitioners from the private sector and civil society, as well as religious leaders and scholars.  The sharing of expertise, experiences and lessons learned at the Conference will focus on identifying solutions to the challenges which can inform policies and strategies, and ultimately facilitate better functioning communities at all levels.

Read more

Multicultural Leadership Course

Australian Multicultural Community Services (AMCS) has 34 years’ experience in providing home care to multicultural seniors. AMCS has recently rolled out an exciting new course that has resonated with Victorian multicultural communities. Our MLC course is designed by Elizabeth Drozd, CEO of AMCS and former Victorian Multicultural Commissioner. The course is prepared specifically for migrant community leaders, representatives and other interested individuals.

Available topics:
1. What is leadership?
2. How to apply for funding?
3. How to incorporate and manage a not-for-profit?
4. What is available for free?
5. How to establish government funded support services for your community?
6. Elective - decided by course participants

To stay informed about upcoming course locations, dates and times, please visit the website and sign up to the mailing list: www.amcservices.org.au or telephone 9133 8628.

Promote your wares!

We are always keen to help promote any new projects, events and resources through our newsletter. Feel free to contact us if you would have anything to share with us.
Email info@culturaldiversity.com.au or call 03 8823 7979