Ethnic communities recognised
Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria has demonstrated its commitment to ethnic communities, having signed the state’s Community Accord.
Multicultural issues facing ageing ethnic communities made it to the forefront of the Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria (AAV) agenda yesterday after the organisation signed the state’s Community Accord at an official ceremony in Melbourne.
The signing of the Victorian Community Accord by AAV’s acting chief executive officer, Jack Sach, certified the organisation’s commitment to issues facing older people in ethnic communities throughout the state, especially those living with dementia and their families.
“The signing of this Accord strengthens AAV’s existing relationships with ageing ethnic communities and demonstrates our commitment to providing support to those people with dementia and their families within these communities,” Mr Sach said.
“It’s really signifies our maturing relationship with the multicultural community in Victoria.
“We’ve had a multicultural officer for eight years but we just recently got a second one and are looking to increase our work in this area. We are working with a large number of communities so signing the Victorian Community Accord is an acknowledgement of that.”
As per the Accord and the principles of the Multicultural Victoria Act 2004 in which it supports, AAV stated that it will: “Respect all ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic communities; seek opportunities to work together to re-affirm our similarities as human beings and the fundamental principals which unite us as Victorians; advocate for the elimination of racial and religious intolerance; and reject all forms of racial and religious vilification, violence, harassment and unlawful discrimination.”
Mr Sach said that although AAV supports a whole range of ethnic communities, it was important to help develop the smaller ones with less infrastructure, such as the Lao and Romanian communities.
The document was signed in front of Victorian Multicultural Commission chairperson, George Lekakis, and the ceremony was attended by various representatives of the state’s Lao, Romanian, Russian-Jewish and Finnish communities.
“I commend Alzheimer’s Australia Vic for taking a positive and important step in signing the Community Accord,” said Mr Lekakis.
“The organisation is making a clear statement about its resolve not only to recognise and support the cultural diversity of its clients, but more importantly, to respond to them in an inclusive and sensitive way.”
The signed document will be displayed at AAV’s Hawthorn head office so that visitors from all Victorian’s ethnic communities will be assured of the organisation’s ongoing commitment.
AAV also released a new set of cultural, dementia-education resources for the Lao and Romanian communities yesterday, as well as Romanian and Lao dementia community service radio announcements.
The organisation plans to develop a similar set of resources for the Russian-Jewish and Finnish communities in the future.
The Lao and Romanian resources are available by calling the National Dementia Helpline 1800 100 500.
