A strategic Summit held on the 25 October to address issues impacting on the provision of culturally appropriate aged care for all Australians was an initiative of a Senior Women In Management Program (SWIM) 2002 project team. The SWIM Project Team included Jane Braham (ATO), Suzanne Cumming (FACS), Lynette Mollard (APSC), Kathryn O’Loughlin (NCA), Kathleen Silleri (ACA) and Melanie Trimble (ATO).

As a result of consultation between the SWIM Project Team and the Australian Multicultural Foundation (AMF), the need to ensure that aged care appropriately addressed the needs of Australia’s diverse population was identified. The AMF agreed to be the client organization for the project with the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DHA) and the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) sponsoring and supporting the project.

Facilitated by Lynette Glendinning of P.A.L.M Management, the Summit involved participants from a range of peak industry, training, State and Federal agencies and aged care provider organisations. Sir James Gobbo, Chairperson of the AMF, opened the Summit and set the context for the day, emphasizing the importance of considering the needs of Australia ‘s diverse community in all fields of service delivery, including the provision of aged care.

The Federal Minister for Ageing, the Hon. Kevin Andrews MP, talked about “Culturally Appropriate Aged Care in the New Millennium”.

“The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has projected that the number of older Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds will increase by 66% between 1996 and 2011. The provision of culturally appropriate aged care services is a key challenge for the Federal Government and the aged care sector now and into the future” the Minister said.

A key outcome from the Summit was an announcement from the Minister of a ‘Minister’s Award’ for Aged Care Providers in recognition of best practice in culturally appropriate aged care. Other outcomes included the:

• development of culturally appropriate aged care training by establishing an industry training reference group and ensuring accessibility to funding;
• development and implementation of a reward and recognition system for excellence and achievement in culturally appropriate care and to raise the profile of best practice;
• targeting of registration/accreditation bodies to review curricula to assess the adequacy of culturally appropriate care in content and competencies.

Overall, the Summit ably met its objective of bringing together and forging ongoing strategic partnerships between major stakeholders within the aged care industry to optimise the delivery of culturally appropriate aged care services.

In particular, the SWIM project team met its learning objectives of undertaking a project with a strong community focus and enhancing the quality of life or delivery of service for an identified segment of the community, while supporting Commonwealth Government policies.

The final report and attachment files are available to view/download as an Acrobat pdf file (Click here to install Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Final Report.pdf
Attachment A – List_of_attend ees.pdf
Attachment B – Jennifer_Bryant_Notes.pdf
Attachment C – Lesley_Podesta_Notes.pdf
Attachment D – Ljubica_Petrov_Notes.pdf
Attachment E – Dr_R_John_Leaper_Notes.pdf
Attachment F – Hon_Kevin_Andrews_Notes.pdf