Giving voice to diverse populations in aged care
When policy is developed the unit will ensure it’s considered through the lens of cultural diversity.
The government is establishing a dedicated multicultural unit to develop a culturally sensitive aged care sector.
Sitting within the Department of Health and Aged Care, the Multicultural Aged Care Unit – which aims to “engage and collaborate with multicultural communities to develop a robust, dynamic approach to culturally sensitive aged care” – is a recommendation of the government’s Multicultural Framework Review.
Launched last year, the review was set up to examine Australia’s modern-day multicultural society, and recommend changes to laws, policies and institutional settings.
A wide variety of organisations and individuals were invited to contribute to the review. In all, the review panel received 796 submissions leading to 29 recommendations, including one from Fronditha Care – a not-for-profit residential and community care provider specialising in assisting older Australians from a Greek cultural background.
“The recommendation is that this unit be established so that it can look very strategically at all of the components that go into supporting elders to age well,” Fronditha Care chief executive officer Faye Spiteri told Australian Ageing Agenda.
“And that all services have an underpinning of the fact that people come from a whole range of diverse cultural backgrounds and their expectations and own country experiences of ageing well may vary.”
Ms Spiteri’s comments come in response to the release of the review’s report: Towards Fairness – a multicultural Australia for all.
Which, said Andrew Giles – Minister for Immigration Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs – “charts a roadmap to invigorate our multicultural democracy by proposing ways to strengthen institutions, represent all peoples in Australia’s cultural life, and ensure universal access to public services.”
Ms Spiteri told AAA that the terms of reference for the review didn’t include aged care in particular. “I thought it was very important to raise the concerns or challenges around the inclusion of older people from diverse cultural backgrounds and how their healthcare needs and wellbeing are being supported to age well,” she said.
Speaking of the unit’s purpose, Ms Spiteri said: “The remit will be to ensure there is a cohesive approach across delivery of services for older people from culturally diverse backgrounds.”
Ms Spiteri told AAA the aged care multicultural unit will give culturally diverse older people a platform. “It’s about having a voice … When policy is developed it takes people’s ethnicity and culture and how they want to age into consideration so that all the things that are priorities for the government in terms of aged care reform will be considered through the lens of cultural diversity.”
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