Co-designing: The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing's Multilingual Communication Cards with residents at Belvedere Aged Care
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 provide insight into how they would like to be communicated with especially when they have limited or no English language abilities.”
How many staff and residents were involved in the co-design project?
“With 30% of Belvedere Aged Care residents of Italian background, conversations and feedback from our Italian residents identified the need to revise our current communication cards. This co-design project included input from four Italian speaking residents and three Belvedere staff to identify key words and phrases that were important to communicate as part of a resident’s daily care routine.”
How will you be using the Italian communications with your residents?
“Belvedere’s Italian residents who need additional communication support will receive the co-design phrases in a binder book. Staff and residents will be encouraged to refer to the cards to improve communication.”
What has been the role of leaders such as yourself in facilitating inclusive practice?
“As a resident-led project, this has been a great example of how leaders can support inclusive
practice, providing residents the space to express their needs and work with them to find solutions that improve their wellbeing.”
"You've got to give us Italians (residents) respect when you communicate.
This is good to teach staff how to speak to us and understand our language."
Lucio Piastrino about the Communication Cards Co-design project.
What motivated you to reach out to the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing?
“The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing provided existing templates and translation resources that helped us kick-start the project and assist our Italian residents identify words and phrases they’d like communicated on a daily basis. It was a positive experience to collaborate with The Centre to find solutions that support resident-led activities that lead to improved care and well-being for our residents.”
Is there anything else that you think is good for the sector to know about the project?
“This project should be seen as living design that can evolve with input from residents at any time. I’m glad to support such a resident-led project which gave Belvedere residents ownership of the project and provided staff the opportunity to share in conversations about respectful communication.”
Thank you Karin and Belvedere Aged Care for sharing your story.