Welcome to the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing e-newsletter, bringing you the latest news, resources and examples of best practice. We thank you for subscribing and invite you to share your ideas and developments so that together we can improve the quality of life for older Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. You can also visit the news section of our website for regular updates from us.

A short promotional trailer for Ageing in Australia: The Immigrant Experience, a DVD produced by the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing has been released.

The 2-minute trailer showcases the themes and issues covered in the full production, and is available on YouTube to view and share with colleagues.

Ageing in Australia: The Immigrant Experience is designed as an educational tool for aged care and related service providers, and aims to raise awareness with a view to enhance the delivery of culturally inclusive care. The full production can be purchased for $44 and can be ordered here. 

Watch the Promotional Trailer on You Tube

Following on from the success of the Ageing in Australia: Cultural Diversity in Aged Care Expo last year, the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing will once again host the Expo at the Melbourne Town Hall in 2013.

The Expo will assist members of the public and especially people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities access information about aged care and support services. Exhibitors will include many of Victoria’s leading aged care services, advocacy organisations and government departments. Interpreters and bilingual staff will be available to facilitate communication between exhibitors and the public.

Registration is now open for organisations to exhibit at the Ageing in Australia: Cultural Diversity in Aged Care Expo 2013. This is a unique opportunity for organisations to promote their services to people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, as well as network with other providers. 

Visit our website or call 03 8823 7979 for more details.

The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing recently completed a series of workshops aimed at aged care providers in metropolitan Melbourne and in regional Victoria (Mildura, Horsham and Ararat).

Nine workshops covering the themes of dementia care, continence care, residential and community aged care were attended by a total of 223 participants. Participants represented a cross section of aged care professionals working in a variety of settings, ranging from managers, program coordinators, team leaders, clinical and direct care staff. 

The workshops were received well across the board. Below is a sample of the some of the participant’s feedback:

“Terrific day, very well organised with great handouts. Very practical strategies” 

“Everything was very well presented in this workshop, so much I can implement in my workplace” 

“It was very informative, real life examples and discussions were particularly helpful”

“I found the sessions today to be very informative and interactive ... lots of information sharing!”  

The Centre will be running a new series of workshops in the new year, so stay tuned!

The date has been set for the next Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing conference. It will be held on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 June 2014 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Held biannually, the conferences are renowned for their lively discussion and demonstration of best practice of cultural diversity in the aged care sector. Save the dates for the 2014 conference now!

Also please note the following key dates:

• Deadline for submission of abstracts - Friday 28 February 2014
• Successful authors notified of outcome – Friday 14 March 2014
• Nominations open for the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing Awards for Excellence in Culturally Inclusive Aged Care – January 2014

For further information and sponsorship enquiries please contact Danyel Walker on (03) 8823 7989  or danyel@culturaldiversity.com.au

The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing hosted a stall at the Victorian Seniors Festival Opening Day at Federation Square on Sunday 7 October.

The event provided us with an opportunity to talk with the public about aged care services in Australia, and distribute bilingual information in 17 different languages.

We were lucky enough to have a group of bilingual aged care professionals helping us with communication on the day from organisations including Brotherhood of St Laurence (Greek), Australian Croatian Community Services (Croatian), Australian Multicultural Community Services (Polish), Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association (Vietnamese) and Chinese Community Social Services Centre Inc. (Chinese).

It was an extremely successful day, with the stall attracting many people who were all very grateful to receive aged care information in their language. In particular, a gentleman who spoke Tagalog was ecstatic to find information in his language after being adamant there would be nothing for him at the stand (pictured above).

The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing hosted an exhibition stall as part of the ‘Let’s Speak the Same Language’ expo and forum on 29 October hosted by the HealthWest Partnership.

Over 80 health, aged care, ethno-specific and local government representatives from Melbourne’s Western region attended the day. As part of the forum, issues such as health literacy and cross cultural communication were discussed, while the expo featured a number of ethno-specific organisations. The day concluded with a performance by the Spectrum Multicultural Choir.

All the presentations given on the day are available on the HealthWest Partnership website

At the Cultural Diversity in Ageing Conference in June this year, The Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, the Hon Mark Butler MP announced that a National CALD Aged Care Strategy would be developed as part of the Older Australians from Diverse Backgrounds stream of the Living Longer Living Better aged care reform package.

The strategy, which involved consultations facilitated by FECCA will help inform the way Government responds to the needs of older people from CALD backgrounds.

Hon Mark Butler MP has committed to developing the National CALD Aged Care Strategy by the end of 2012.

The draft National CALD Aged Care Strategy is now accessible online via the Department of Health and Ageing website.

The second open competitive grants funding round under the Aged Care Service Improvement and Healthy Ageing Grants Fund opened on Friday 9 November. The application period will close at 2pm on Friday 21 December 2012.

More information on the Fund and the second funding round, including the updated Fund Guidelines, is available on the Department of Health and Ageing website.

The Participation for CALD Seniors grants program offers grants to organisations to create or expand social participation opportunities for socially isolated older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Grants of up to $10,000 are available.

Applications for the second round of the grants program are currently open until Friday 8 March 2013.

Guidelines with more information about the program, including who is eligible to apply for the grants and the application form are now available for download from Seniors Online Victoria.

Dr Megan-Jane Johnstone (School of Health at Deakin University) has authored 'Bioethics, Cultural Differences and the Problem of Moral Disagreements in End-Of-Life Care: A Terror Management Theory'.

Dr Johnstone says "Cultural considerations relevant to end-of-life care remain poorly understood, poorly guided, and poorly resourced in health care domains."

In this paper, attention is given to exploring why cultural differences exist, why they matter, and how health care providers should treat them in order to reduce the incidence and impact of otherwise preventable harmful moral outcomes in end-of-life care.

Read the abstract and information on accessing the paper here

Australian Hearing works with culturally and linguistically diverse communities throughout Australia in an effort to improve access to hearing services and understanding of hearing health.

According to Ms Michelle Spooner, Executive Manager Marketing at Australian Hearing, the organisation aims to ensure that clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are able to easily access hearing services.

“We offer additional support for our clients at their appointments and provide access to a free interpreter service if required,” she said. “A number of our staff are also bilingual and available to provide assistance.”

“We are happy to attend social and community group meetings to provide information about hearing loss and protection, as well as free hearing screenings”, Ms Spooner said.

To access a free interpreter service you can call 131 450 (TIS National) and ask to be connected to Australian Hearing.

Alternatively, clients can check their hearing over the telephone using Australian Hearing’s toll-free service called Telscreen™ on 1800 826 500. This service is available in 11 languages - Arabic, Cantonese, English, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Mandarin, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Visit the Australian Hearing website for further information and to access fact sheets in other languages.

The Caring for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Carers Project was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Community Partners Program.

During this project, the Italian Benevolent Foundation (IBF) worked with Italian, Chinese and Tatar Bashkurt/Uyghur carers who needed support and information to learn new ways on how to access carer services. 49 carers (14 Italian, 19 Chinese and 16 Tatar-Bashkurt /Uyghur) finalised an intensive 8 week training course where carers were presented with a Certificate of Attendance at the end.

From this project, the Caring for CALD Carers Training Guide was developed which provides step by step guidance on how to best provide information sessions to carers from CALD backgrounds. Feedback from this project include comments around its flexibility and commitment by service providers and the invaluable information given to carers from CALD backgrounds during this time.

Download the Caring for CALD Carers Training Guide and User Manual

The Staying Healthy in the Heat brochure developed by the Department of Health, Victorian State Government is available online in 17 languages.

The brochure contains information on how individuals can take care of themselves and look out for family, friends and neighbours who may need help coping with the heat.

The brochure discusses:

• who is most at risk
• coping with the heat
• preparing for hot weather
• preparing for a power failure
• symptoms of heat-related illness.

Printed copies of the brochure and other community resources can also be requested.

These resources are available at no cost from Department of Health, Victorian State Government website.

The Heart Foundation has released a new information sheet titled 'Healthy Heart Habits', which is available online in 10 languages. This resource is a two page flyer explaining many risk factors that you can change to reduce your chance of developing coronary heart disease.

The Heart Foundation is also linked with the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS – National). Community members who need information on heart health in languages other than English,  can access interpreters  through the Heart Foundation’s Health Information Service on 1300 36 27 87.

Find out more about the resource here

 

The Chinese Community Social Service Centre Inc. will host a cross-cultural awareness workshop at their Box Hill office on 7 December 2012.

Titled 'Put Yourselves in Their Shoes', the workshop is targeted at aged care staff and community service workers and will provide participants with useful information, resources and insights on the beliefs, attitudes, and family relationships and dynamics of older Chinese people.

This free workshop will run from 9.30am - 1.30pm and registrations are essential. For more information and to register, contact Catherine Lam or Dolly Huang on 03 9898 1965 or download the flyer here.

Hi everyone!

We hope you are all well (and stress-free), and ready to celebrate the end of this extremely busy year!

We have all achieved so much, seen a lot of great work, and have also been faced with many challenges. The team at Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing would like to say thank you for all of your contributions, inspiration and friendships - enjoy your break (if you are lucky enough to have one), and don't forget to congratulate yourselves and your organisations on another great year of making the lives of others more positive and healthy.

Thanks for your continued support!

Andrea Baranski on behalf of the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing team.

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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.

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Email us at: info@culturaldiversity.com.au