Good Practice Stories

The Centre celebrates Bolton Clarke long history of supporting and promoting principles of diversity and inclusion. We had a pleasure of chatting with Catherine Witney who is a Senior Advisor for Diversity and Inclusion at Bolton Clarke. “Bolton Clarke Partnering with Consumers for Diversity Model” won the 2017 Australian Better Practice Award and was a nominee for the 2018 Silver Eco and Ageing...

Swan Hill District Health is a regional organisation that took the initiative to organise culturally diverse social support groups. We support great initiatives like this project and we were delighted to discuss this with Jamie Garahy, Social Support Groups Manager at Swan Hill District Health. Jamie says, “Swan Hill District Health is a 143 bed (including Aged Care) fully integrated rural...

Belvedere Aged Care is a family owned and operated aged care home. We had the pleasure of having a lovely chat with Karin Blavo, Lifestyle Manager for Belvedere Aged Care. We talked about Co-designing The Centre's Communication Cards with their residents. What have been your learnings from co-designing the communication cards with your residents? “I’ve seen our residents feel empowered as they...

Anglicare Southern Queensland recognises each person that is in their care as individual, with their own diverse needs and their own unique story. Anglicare aims to support multicultural and linguistically diverse people that are in the aged care community. The Centre spoke with Anglicare about their journey of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We had a great chat with Khai Balabbo, HR Advisor...

SydWest Multicultural Community Services is a leading organisation in delivering culturally inclusive care. We had a great chat with CEO Elfa Moraitakis. Elfa Moraitakis has been with SydWest Multicultural Community Services for 13 years and has been in the CEO role for 6 years. What motivates you to do this work? Elfa: “It’s the impact we can bring to the community. It’s seeing people live a...

The Centre interviewed Olivia Oh and Katie Levine from Australian Multicultural Community Services about culturally inclusive practices across its program delivery. Olivia Oh Katie Levine Australian Multicultural Community Services (AMCS) was established more than 35 years ago. It started to help refugees that came from Poland to Australia. A visionary group of community leaders established...

Connecting older people through facilitated phone calls Participant talking to her buddy as part of their weekly catch up. In March 2020 Merri Health was running centre and community based programmes in community languages for groups of 20-35 older people. Then everything changed. When the first COVID-19 lockdown began, the social support team quickly switched to staying in contact with...

We caught up with Rebeca Gago Portero, Lifestyle Team Leader, Northern Gardens and Jacinta Jarutis, Group Lifestyle Coordinator, Medical & Aged Care Group. Rebeca Jacinta We asked them about their approach to diversity and inclusion at their Northern Gardens Aged Care facility in Coburg North, Melbourne. Jacinta: Diversity and inclusion form part of our brand values for the whole organisation....

National Seniors Australia is a not-for-profit membership organisation, research & advocacy group that gives older Australians a national voice. We spoke with CEO, Professor John McCallum about National Seniors Australia’s COVID-19 Assertive Outreach project. John: With Australian Unity CALD Alliance Advisory Group we coordinated a diversity focus group in The City of Brimbank in Melbourne in...

Wireless headphones & audio visual content for older people especially those with dementia We were introduced to The Moove & Groove Program at the CALDWAYS 2020 conference and were really impressed. We caught up with Kate Sowden, Moove & Groove’s General Manager, to find out more. The Moove & Groove Program helps aged care providers support people with dementia and provide individualised care,...