Conferences

Tasneem Chopra

Cross Cultural Consultant OAM
and Moderator for the Conference

Conference Welcome and Introduction

Toby Dawson

Head of Strategic Partnerships
IRT Group

Presentation

Consumers as partners – Co-designing home care services with Aboriginal elders

Toby talks about way in which Booraja, which provides home care services to Aboriginal Elders from Batemans Bay to Narooma in NSW has allowed Elders to maintain their lifestyle and connection to culture and country, while helping them stay independent and at home for longer.

Dr Ruth De Souza RN, PhD, FACN

Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow School of Art, College of Design and Social Context
RMIT University

Keynote

Alone Together – Communicating the needs and experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse older people in a creative way during COVID19

In this presentation, Ruth discusses a study undertaken during COVID-19 inviting older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to share their experiences of social connectedness, accessing health and social services and using technology. These research findings were converted into an accessible and appealing visual form, so participants could see themselves. Ruth suggests that sharing findings in this way can facilitate empathic engagement, reflection, and dialogue to change practice, policy, education and community attitudes in an era of COVID ageism

Tasneem Chopra

Cross Cultural Consultant OAM
and Moderator for the Conference

Audience Participation

Q and A session and invitations to share good practice

This session involved responding to questions and comments from the audience and will invite them to share ideas and examples of good practice.

Elizabeth Drozd

Chief Executive Officer
Australian-Multicultural Community Services

Keynote

A Fair Go – Increasing participation in aged care services for older people from culturally diverse backgrounds

Elizabeth highlighted the importance of innovation and creativity in gathering feedback of older people from diverse culturally backgrounds into shaping the aged care sector. Elizabeth will draw upon culturally inclusive approaches to consulting with diverse older people and highlighting how a “one size fits all” approach to consumer consultation in aged care can exclude valuable input from older people.

Stories to Inspire

Increasing linguistic diversity of aged care staff through consumer language lessons

Jacinta and Rebeca discussed the successes of the Italian Language Class project which commenced in June 2020 at Medical and Aged Care group's Residential Facility in Melbourne's Northern region entitled Northern Gardens. The Italian class is a cultural exchange promoting connection and relationships as well as giving older people the opportunity to share their strengths. Teaching Italian is now a weekly Friday class and residents have expressed feeling motivated to share their language, culture, and traditions. Italian letters & videos are also exchanged with Italian preschool children.

Dr Tom Verghese

Founder
Cultural Synergies

Workshop

Cross cultural communication

This presentation aimed to equip staff working within the aged care sector with the knowledge and skills in communicating effectively with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Some of the key themes include enabling participants to understand the impact of culture on communication, teamwork and client interactions and providing a framework to understand cultural similarities and differences and how this impacts cross-cultural interactions.

Panel Discussion

This panel discussion featured innovative developments in language service programs, research and resources.

Danijela Hlis

Author, Carer and Advocate

Stories to Inspire

Depicting the lives of people of CALD background in Australia living with dementia

In this presentation, Danijela talked about the book FORGET-ME-NOTS/SPOMINCICE, a bilingual collection of works depicting lives of people from culturally diverse backgrounds in Australia living with dementia and experiencing ageism, disability, isolation and lack of inclusion.

Lisa Tribuzio

Manager
Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing

Video Launch

Innovative approaches to inclusive practice by leaders in the aged care sector

Lisa gave an overview of the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing's Innovative Approaches to Inclusive Practice within the Aged Care sector film project, a project showcasing good practice in diversity and inclusion from leaders in the aged care sector.

Tasneem Chopra

Cross Cultural Consultant OAM
and Moderator for the Conference

Conference Closing

Excellence in Cultural Diversity in Ageing - Panel session

Pamela Bibby, Access & Support Worker, Rights Information and Advocacy Centre Inc.

Excellence in Cultural Diversity in Ageing - Panel session

Excellence in Cultural Diversity in Ageing - Panel session

Excellence in Cultural Diversity in Ageing - Panel session