PICAC Connections Newsletter - Summer 2023

ECCQ acknowledges the traditional custodians who have lived on and cared for Country for thousands of generations, and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders past and present.

Welcome to the Summer edition of PICAC Connections. In this edition you’ll find:

• Welcome 
• OPAN: Save the Date - Diversity Workshops
• Workforce Mosaic – Talking Racism and Discrimination in Aged Care (Anonymous Survey)
• MiCare – An Example of Culturally Responsive Aged Care 
• Resources from November Aged Care Events 
• Aged Care Star Ratings
• Centre for Cultural Diversity and Ageing: 2022-23 Diversity Webinar Series
• Free Translating Services
• Recruiting Participants for an Exciting Research Project
• Village Connect presents Cultural Safety Training

Welcome

Dear PICAC Queensland Subscribers,

Since our last edition, we've welcomed a New Year as well as a a New Lunar Year - the year of the Rabbit/Cat. How did you celebrate Lunar New Year at your aged care service? We'd love to hear and see your ideas so we can share with other services! Please email us at picac@eccq.com.au to share.

The ECCQ Annual report was released on Thursday 24 November. We’re so proud of everything we’ve achieved. We encourage you to take some time and read through the last 12 months of ECCQ. Click here to read the Annual Report.

If you haven't done so, make sure you sign-up to to newsletters and alerts from the Department of Health and Aged Care here.

This edition of the PICAC newsletter contains good news stories, opportunities to take part in research and surveys, details of resources and workshops, and other information relevant to the multicultural aged care space!

Contact us at picac@eccq.com.au for support and training in delivering culturally appropriate aged care.

OPAN: Save the Date - Diversity Workshops

Who's missing from your aged care service? asks Aged Care Minister Anika Wells. OPAN's Planning for Diversity project will help providers to address the barriers for older people living in their communities. Face-to-face workshops are rolling out across Queensland and Tasmania in the coming weeks.

OPAN’s Planning for Diversity workshop series is available to all aged care providers. It offers practical information and tools to make your services more inclusive of older people from diverse and marginalised groups.

Planning for Diversity helps you to:

• differentiate your service to better engage older people and families from diverse groups
• identify and address barriers for older people in your aged care planning region who would like to access your services but are missing out
• demonstrate you are working towards Aged Care Quality Standards and your commitment to the Charter of Aged Care Rights
• identify specific actions and embed diversity within Continuous Improvement Processes.

Workforce Mosaic – Talking Racism and Discrimination in Aged Care (Anonymous Survey)

The Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care - PICAC alliance is creating a new resource that will provide information and strategies on how to create a cohesive working environment without racism or discrimination.

The survey will gather experiences that will give a voice to those who have experienced or witnessed racism and/or discrimination in the workplace. 
 
The survey will take about 10-15 minutes to complete, and we would be grateful if you could share this email with your colleagues who work in aged care.

Should you have any questions regarding the survey or the resource we are developing, please feel free to reach out to Heba or Gail via email – admin@mcci.org.au

Please click below to take part in the survey.

MiCare – An Example of Culturally Responsive Aged Care 

PICAC’s aim is to support aged care services to deliver care that is responsive and appropriate to culturally and linguistically diverse clients/consumers. So, we are always delighted to share examples of services who are succeeding at inclusive care.

Over several years PICAC Qld has developed strong connections with a Brisbane bayside aged care facility, originally known as Dutch Care, providing Dutch heritage-centric care for migrants from Holland, but now as the Prins Willem Alexander Lodge (and part of MiCare) is home to residents from 22 countries, speaking 11 different languages and representing 16 different religious beliefs.

In 2016 Prins Willem Alexander Lodge (PWAL) signed an MOU with LACA, initially allocating 12 beds for Spanish speaking residents. This cohort of clients continues to grow and recently a celebratory event was held for these residents – with invitations extended to the PICAC team, PWAL staff and residents from all backgrounds.

Set amongst landscaped gardens, everyone was greeted by the aroma of newly baked Latino treats from the Dutch cafe and fresh coffee. To add to the atmosphere PWAL had arranged for a Central- American musician, Ovidio, dressed in cultural attire, to sing traditional songs accompanied by his guitar. The Spanish-speaking residents and their families sang along and swayed to the music. These kinds of events not only celebrate the cultures they originated from, but they allow other residents and staff members to share in these celebrations, and to get to know each other better.

“I like the diversity of staff - we have staff from Spanish, Indian, Indonesian, Dutch, Australian, etc. We also have residents from many countries of births, it’s nice when people speak their own language” - Johanna (93 yr old, Dutch descendent born in Indonesia).

MiCare is an example of an organisation that has flexibly branched out beyond its initial accommodation of Dutch residents to include people from many cultural backgrounds. We will observe with interest how they continue to grow and set an example of aged care in increasingly multicultural Queensland.

Resources from November Aged Care Events

In November PICAC QLD, together with the Multicultural Advisory Service, held a Multicultural End of Life Forum as well as a Priorities in Delivering Culturally Appropriate Aged Care Event.

You can view the PowerPoint Slides and Resources from both of the days via the link below.

Aged Care Star Ratings

Star Ratings for aged care homes are here - they started in December 2022. 

Star Ratings help you compare the quality of aged care homes using the 'Find a provider' tool on the My Aged Care website.

The released ratings are similar to the statistics revealed in early December when providers received a sneak peek of their results. Percentage-wise, the publicly released aged care star ratings are as follows:  

• Five stars (excellent) – 1% of providers 
• Four stars (good) – 36% 
• Three stars (acceptable) – 54% 
• Two stars (improvement needed) – 8% 
• One star (significant improvement needed) – 1% 

Centre for Cultural Diversity and Ageing: 2022-23 Diversity Webinar Series 

The online Diversity Webinar series aims to engage staff working within the aged care sector in Australia with skills and knowledge to work effectively with diverse older people, their families, carers and advocates. It involves a range of topics relevant to culturally safe and inclusive practice, and is designed in response to topics requested from staff working in the aged care sector in Australia.

Engaging in these webinars provides services a valuable opportunity to improve practices related to the newly released Aged Care Star Ratings (see article above). For example, coming up in June is a webinar titled 'Food for Thought - the Link between Food, Culture and Identity'. This webinar will focus on the connection between food, culture and identity and the importance of providing food diversity and choice in aged care settings - factors relevant to the 'Resident's Experience' criteria. 

Read more about and register for webinars from the 2022-23 Diversity Webinar series (July 2022 - June 2023) via the link below. 

You can also visit the 2021 Diversity Webinar Series and 2022 Diversity Webinar Series (Jan-Jun 2022) page for recordings and slides from past presentations.

Free Translating Services

The Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care is offering free translation services to help aged care providers communicate with older Australians in their preferred language...read more or request a translation

As well as this, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (who speak one of the below languages) can now connect to My Aged Care through Interpreter Connect. Through this free service, you can speak with My Aged Care about your aged care questions and get assistance applying for and accessing services...find out more

Recruiting Participants for an Exciting Research Project

The University of Queensland has partnered with the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) and the Multicultural Communities Council Gold Coast (MCCGC) in successfully obtaining funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project Scheme. The 3-year research project Integrating Community and Family Aged Care for Diverse Australians aims to support older Australians from CALD backgrounds to age well at home and in their communities. The ARC project will help older CALD Australians to live well, be able to contribute to, engage with, and enjoy their communities, and have access to support when they need it. It will also help service providers to provide culturally responsive and tailored care to meet the diverse needs of older CALD Australians.

The research team is currently recruiting participants for Study 1 that aims to understand aged care experiences from the perspective of older CALD people through interviews. The participants will be provided with a $30 Coles gift card, as a token of appreciation for their participation in the study. If you are interested in participating in the study either as an individual person aged 65 or over, from CALD backgrounds, living at home and receiving some level of community care support, or as a community service provider, please contact Professor Shuang Liu via email at shuang.liu@uq.edu.au or phone 07 3346 8242. Thank you!

Village Connect Presents Cultural Safety Training

Village Connect are running Cultural Trainings please see the flyer below for more details. Email hub@villageconnect.org.au to express your interest. Once you express interest, you will be sent an email to register.