Addressing Cultural Diversity A Provider Prospective: One Approach

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Addressing Cultural Diversity A Provider
Prospective One Approach

• Allan Munro Elizabeth Esdale
• Ardeer House

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Reactive or Proactive?

• Every aged care facility has a strategic choice
  to make in how it will face this issue, between a
  fundamentally reactive approach, and one that is
  proactive in nature and effect.
• An aged care facility which adopts the reactive
  approach treats cultural differences as hazards
• The proactive approach, on the other hand, first
  of all sees cultural differences for what they
  are - potentially different values, assumptions,
  expectations, and behaviour as a result of their
  differing backgrounds.

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Getting to know our Local community

• Our Starting Point
• Ardeer House is a 55 bed residential place
  offering high and low care, primarily serving
  the communities of Ardeer, Deer Park, Sunshine in
  the local government area of Brimbank.

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Ardeer House Community

• Our house is composed of residents with the
  following cultural composition
• 35 Polish
• 15 Ukrainian
• 05 Croatian/Serbian
• Or 65 of residents from Slavic language
  countries
• 30 Anglo Australians
• 09 Maltese/Italian
• 06 other

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Providing Quality Care Cultural Diversity
Accreditation

• Expected Outcome 3.8 Cultural and Spiritual Life.
  
• Individual interest, customs, beliefs and
  cultural and ethnic backgrounds are valued and
  fostered.
• Cultural diversity from our perspective is not
  limited to provision of one or two items such as
  national cultural days, festive occasions. Its
  about a philosophy of inclusive service
  provision.
• An understanding of cultural diversity goes
  beyond one expected outcome, it is complex
  relates to the essential spirit of the Aged Care
  Act. For us also, the provision of cultural
  diversity is about good business.

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Challenges

• Sensitivity to culturally diverse practices
• Family / Resident consultations with services
  within the facility
• Addressing cultural needs in Lifestyle program
• Recruiting the right staff

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Meeting Client Needs Flexibility and ongoing
change driven by Evidence

• We have implemented a number of initiatives over
  the years some still exist others have waned.
• So why have we established certain initiatives
  and why have some initiatives waned ?
• Our business perspective was based on
  understanding exactly what our neighbours wanted
  and being flexible in what and how we provided
  services (within regulatory constraints) .

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Meeting Client Needs Flexibility and ongoing
change driven by Evidence

• Aged Care Organisations should always focus on
  meeting clients and residents needs.
• Ardeer House was committed to providing a service
  that was responsive to resident needs from both
  a
• Philosophical perspective
• Business perspective.
• This dual rationale for our approach, philosophy
  plus business, is based on continuing research
  and evaluation effort.

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Research

• Building knowledge
• 30 of the residents in the facility were Polish
  and that of these, 96 percent were experiencing
  dementia
• Relatives frequently asked the question Did the
  home have staff that could speak their relatives
  original language.
• We spent much time talking to families and
  residents learning about their immigration
  stories

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The Strength of Organisational Partnership

• In late 2003, management of Ardeer House met with
  the Australian Polish Community Service (APCS)
  and Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care Vic
  (PICAC-VIC)
• As a result, a number of initiatives have been
  undertaken by Ardeer House to ensure the delivery
  of culturally and linguistically appropriate care
  to members of the Polish community

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Initiatives

• Staffing Profile Changes
• Changes of the employment policy to actively
  recruit staff from cultural and linguistic
  backgrounds of residents
• Communication Cards
• APCS decided to adopt a model of communication
  cards adopted by the Italian community some years
  earlier.
• Polish language Classes Cultural Training for
  Non Speaking Polish Staff

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Initiatives

• Dietary Preferences
• Polish cooking classes were provided by
  volunteers (community visitors) to catering
  staff.
• Lifestyle Activities Program
• Domestic, productive type activities
• Other Initiatives
• Room Allocation Resident Selection

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Building a Critical Mass

• Creating an inclusive organisational environment
• We now have a resident composition which reflects
  strongly the major CALD groups from our immediate
  community/neighborhood.
• From a business imperative, we had a policy of
  maintaining critical masses from our immediate
  surrounding community as this gives an
  opportunity to recruit staff with similar
  languages and an ability to be realistically
  culturally responsive.

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Enjoy the benefits

• Organisational Benefits
• A Healthy Waitlist.
• Higher than industry average occupancy rate.
• Social Engineering the Homes Climate/Environment
• Improved Resident Well Being
• Improved Staff Well-Being

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Conclusion

• We have outlined our approach and strategies
  here.
• Initiatives were responses to presenting concerns
  from both a philosophy of inclusiveness
• None of the initiatives were a panacea. However
  our success has been influenced by
• Staff leadership
• Commitment
• Support by a community ethnic agency

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Conclusion

• Becoming a culturally and linguistically
  competent caregiver is an ongoing process that
  takes both commitment and practice, but research
  indicates that it leads to improved resident
  satisfaction and health outcomes.