The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing's e-newsletter brings you the latest news, resources and examples of best practice in the area of cultural diversity in ageing. We thank you for subscribing and invite you to share your ideas so that together we can improve the quality of life for older Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

New Bilingual Resources

The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing has recently released a series of new bilingual resources. Designed to assist aged care providers to communicate important information to clients who speak languages other than English, each resource is available for easy download in 20 languages.

Residential Care and Services Guide
This guide is designed to assist residents and their families with information regarding the range of hotel and care services they can expect from a residential aged care facility. It is available in high care and low care versions to suit the needs of individual clients.

Community Care Client Guides: CACP, EACH and EACHD
These guides are designed to assist CACP, EACH and EACHD clients to familiarise themselves with the services and broader support available to them. They provide an overview of key information regarding each type of package.

Communication Cards
The Communication Cards are a series of words with matching photographs depicting a wide range of daily activities and situations in aged care settings. They have been designed as a tool for enhancing communication with people in their preferred language and can be used to prompt discussion, assist with directions, clarify a client’s needs, check understanding, etc.

Aged Care Signage
This package of bilingual signs is designed for aged care facilities and other services to assist their clients to navigate their way around a home or service. Signage such as ‘Kitchen’, ‘Dining Room’, ‘Recreation Room’, ‘Keep Out’, ‘Danger’ and ‘This Way to the Garden’ help to minimise confusion and miscommunication among residents/clients.

These new resources are a great addition to the Centre’s other online bilingual resources – the highly popular Resident Handbook and Options in Aged Care.

These and many other useful resources are available from www.culturaldiversity.com.au.

For further information contact the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing by email at info@culturaldiversity.com.au or by phone on 03 8823 7900.

Healthy Ageing in WA

On March 23, The West Australian newspaper highlighted cultural diversity in ageing with two articles in the Health and Medical liftout.

In the article, Culture's Place in Care Heather Zubek covered the issue of cultural diversity in ageing in Western Australia and explored some key topics and resources found on the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing website . The article discussed areas of concern for clients from CALD backgrounds, such as communication, living environment and emotional support.

The second article, Bingo Call a Common Language highlighted the great work of the Chung Wah Community Centre in WA and discusses activities that take place at the Balcatta Daycare Centre including bingo, film, culturally appropriate food and dancing. 

Theresa Kwok, Chief Executive of the Chung Wah Association: Community and Aged Care (CAC) explained, "Traditionally, seniors in their home countries were part of a very tight community that provided security and companionship. In Hong Kong for example, an elderly person would rise early, meet their friends for tai chi in the park or go for a morning walk, have yum cha as a group and then they would all go to the market to buy their food for the day. In Australia, they don't have this community and they feel quite isolated".

Chung Wah CAC started full time welfare services in 1984 and today has over 500 clients from China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Burma and Hong Kong.
 

'Creative Ways to Care' Launch

On March 30, The Commonwealth Respite and Carelink Centre Southern Region in partnership with the South Eastern Region Migrant Resource Centre successfully launched their new education and training program, Creative Ways to Care - strategies for carers of people living with dementia in Dandenong.

Creative Ways to Care - strategies for carers of people living with dementia is an education and training program designed for health professionals to run as six workshops for family/unpaid carers. The program aims to provide carers with skills, knowledge, resources and confidence to implement diversional strategies at home.

Carers can learn strategies to connect, engage and have fun with the person they care for through meaningful activities that will assist with tasks and activities of daily living. They can also learn techniques to increase the level of physical, cognitive and sensory stimulation for the person they care for living with dementia.

Workshop topics include: dementia; behaviour and activities; reminiscence; stimulating and soothing the senses; music; creative arts and a review session.

If you would like to know more about the Creative Ways to Care training program, email creativewaystocare@cgmc.org.au or visit the website.

South Eastern Region Migrant Resource Centre and Commonwealth Care and Respite staff at the 'Creative Ways to Care' Launch.

Bilingual Jobseekers Program

Bilingual jobseekers and aged migrants in Melbourne’s west have benefited from Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre (MRC)’s innovative Multicultural Home Support Service (MHSS). Training and employing 42 jobseekers to provide in-home support in the aged care sector has been the highlight of the MHSS program so far. The program was officially launched by Elizabeth Jensen, Deputy President, Centre of the Ageing (COTA) at end of the March.

Ms Rafaela López, MHSS West Team Leader, Spectrum MRC explained, “In an area with a jobless rate of up to 13.5%, it’s all about jobs and with 42 jobs secured, we’re on track to meet our target of 66 jobs. MHSS offers training to bilingual jobseekers interested in an aged care career leading to real jobs we can offer as part of our brokerage service. There is a large part of the ageing migrant population in the west, with a growing need for home support services".

The Australian Government identified North Western Melbourne as a Priority Employment Area, an area significantly affected by the global recession, and funded initiatives such as MHSS under its Jobs Fund program to support job creation and build community and social infrastructure in North West Melbourne.

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Gippsland Seminar Series
By Lucyna Artymiuk, Gippsland Multicultural Services

One of the key focuses of the Community Partners Program (CPP) is to make residential facilities aware of cultural and other issues impacting on CALD background elderly residents. A primary strategy of many CPP workers utilised in attaining this goal is conducting cultural briefings on specific cultures and communities to facility staff.

There are obvious issues impacting on the success of this strategy. This includes the willingness and logistical capacity of managers releasing staff for such training. Another problem is targeting the appropriate facility with enough residents of a particular cultural group to justify such training.

These issues are quite prominent in rural areas where there are very few CALD background elderly people living in aged care facilities .

To overcome these barriers, Gippsland Multicultural Services has organised a series of seminars about multicultural elderly issues for aged care providers in the Gippsland region. Specialist speakers, covering a wide range of topics relating to various communities, come to Morwell from Melbourne.

Topics covered in these seminars include health and mental health coping mechanisms of post war migrants, spirituality and the multicultural elderly, working with the needs and issues of multicultural carers. Each of the seminars is practically oriented and intended to develop skills that the attendees can implement in everyday situations. The topics also can be applied to a wide range of multicultural groups. The knowledge can then be applied in care plan development, service delivery and identification or utilisation of available resources.

After the speaker’s presentation the trainees work through case studies, drawing upon knowledge gained and also their own professional experiences. At each seminar trainees are also provided with supplementary reading material and resources which aim to broaden their knowledge and encouraged them to source further resources.

Each seminar has been extremely well attended and warmly welcomed by aged care providers and residential aged care facilities in the Gippsland region. Trainees have been attending from as far as Bairnsdale, Sale, Wonthaggi and Heyfield. Feedback regarding each seminar from the attendees has rated both content and presentation very highly and with eagerly requesting more of the same.

By utilising this flexible model of cultural and multicultural briefings, Gippsland Multicultural Services has filled an obvious niche in the region.

From left to right: Lisa Sinha (Director Gippsland Multicultural Service), HtunWin Maung Aye (Karen Buddhist Monk), Rev. Stephen van der Hoek (Lutheran Pastor), Sr Liz Roberts (Italian Community chaplain), Paul Zammit (Benetas Pastoral Care Coordinator)

Information Session for Serbian Elderly in Wodonga
By Marina Celebic, Serbian Community Association of Australia (Vic)

On 10 March 2011, Serbian Community Association of Australia (SCAA) Community Partners Program (CPP) organised an aged care information session for a Serbian pensioner group from Wodonga.

At the initial consultation with this group, we were informed about the need to establish contact with aged care service providers in order for them to become familiar with the existing services. Furthermore, the need for information to be presented in the Serbian language was also highlighted.

At the information session we presented two topics; 'Dementia' and 'Caring'. We also screened the Alzheimer’s Australia Understanding Dementia DVD in Serbian language followed by the About Caring DVD also in Serbian. The DVDs, which showed people with dementia and their carers, had a huge effect on everyone present. Following the DVDs, the Carers Victoria guest speakers delivered their presentation, which was an interactive session with many questions being raised.

After the presentation, we were invited to stay for lunch, which was a great opportunity to get to know the members of the group and answer various questions regarding aged care services. The participants all agreed the session was informative,  useful, and watching the DVDs was inspiring and interesting.

Serbian pensioner group in Wodonga

ITALIAN LANGUAGE POCKET GUIDE - A guide to basic Italian words and phrases for aged care workers.

In 2010 Co.As.It. Italian Association of Australia NSW CPP project developed a language guide to assist aged care workers in their communication needs with their senior Italian clients.

The guide is aimed at staff in both community care and residential care settings. It is a sturdy pocket-size booklet which is ring bound and laminated. It is durable, practical to use and easy to carry.
Content is divided into key sections: pronunciation tips; greetings; numbers; family and personal history; leisure activities; outings; food/shopping; personal care; body and health, medical information; a labelled diagram of a human body; client questions; cultural tips and a map of Italy with its regions.

This resource is for sale at $10 inclusive of GST (Postage costs apply). For more information or to order please contact CPP officers at Co.As.It. on (02) 9564 0744 or via email on silvana.cibei@coasit.org.au

Keys of Culture Series: Cultural Briefings, Workshops and Dialogue (NSW)

Thursday 9th June, 2011, Wests Illawarra Leagues Club, Unanderra NSW

Providing culturally appropriate care can be a challenge for aged care workers who are placed routinely in a variety of cultural environments. A little cultural awareness can go a long way, giving the confidence to provide culturally appropriate care and the benefit of a job well done.

The Keys of Culture experience will be a blend of cultural briefings and workshops followed by a Q and A session. Participants will receive cultural briefings on the Macedonian, Spanish and Maltese communities.

These will be followed by workshops to expand knowledge and skills to critically assess culturally appropriate service delivery; demonstrate culturally appropriate activities that are adaptable for groups, individuals and those with dementia; explore the role of appropriate support resources in the delivery of culturally inclusive aged care services; and support religious and spiritual practices of the CALD service user.

The Keys of Culture Q and A session will address the question of what it takes to secure the best life for those people who have lived lives that have been influenced by a diverse cultural heritage.

Download flyer

National Cultural Competency Tool (NCCT) for Mental Health Services: Training Workshops

6-20 June, 2011

Multicultural Mental Health Australia (MMHA) will be holding a series of half day Training Workshops to assist mental health services to implement the National Cultural Competency Tool for Mental Health Services (NCCT) and to access the support structures in their state or territory.

This training is offered to all relevant stakeholders in most states, including NGO/community sector organisations, the public and private sectors. The Training Workshops will focus on why and how to use the NCCT, and how to make your programs more suitable for people from CALD backgrounds with mental illness, as well as providing you with strategies to overcome any workplace barriers in implementing the National Cultural Competency Standards.

More information 

'Ageing in the Migrant Diaspora': The 9th International Conference on Greek Research
30th June- 3rd July 2011, Flinders University, Bedford Park (SA)

This conference about Greek research is a 4-day event featuring research papers from several studies related to Greek and Cypriot themes. A vibrant program will be dedicated to papers and posters relating to Greek and Cypriot studies that will continue the tradition of the international conferences on Greek research. The conference will explore themes such as ageing experiences of first generation migrants, experiences of ageing among the Hellenic Diaspora and intergenerational support and the role of family care.

For information and bookings, please contact (08) 8201 2053 or (08) 8201 3850

Click here for more information
 

The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing is a Victorian-based organisation supporting the aged care sector to address the needs of older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

We encourage you to contribute to our e-newsletter. Please submit your culturally-inclusive initiatives, projects, resources and upcoming events. We would love to hear from you.

Email us at: info@culturaldiversity.com.au