Culturally aware practice

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: Aged Care Diversity Framework outlines action plans to address the needs of all diverse groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, senior Australians from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Intersex elders. Intended for aged care service providers the documents can be downloaded from the Department website.

Gwandalan is a project that aims to support cultural safety within palliative care services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

It offers five eLearning Modules to support frontline staff to deliver culturally responsive palliative care: Introduction to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Palliative Care and Cultural Practice, Safe Communication, Supporting Choices at End-of-Life, Strengthening Partnerships, and Community Engagement.

This video from the Alliance for Forgotten Australians 'Who are the Forgotten Australians?' provides insight into the trauma associated with their experience.

The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing website provides four online training modules to support aged care providers to develop and deliver inclusive services to all consumers.

To understand more about homelessness, its causes and the impact it can have on individuals visit the Australian Policy Online to read the Commonwealth Australia report: The road home - a national approach to reducing homelessness. The insights in this 2008 white paper may raise your cultural awareness of homelessness and in turn, help you to provide culturally safe care.

The ELDAC website: Australia’s ageing LGBTI population section explains the impact of discrimination on the health of the LGBTI community. It links to many resources and details the relevance of inclusive practice for palliative care and advance care planning.

Here is a discussion tool, from the University of Tasmania. Developed for residential aged care facility staff, the Talking about dementia and dying training booklet can be read online or printed.

To help allied health professionals transition into rural and remote health service the Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH) website provides training and education modules that will help you to be more culturally aware as you transition to rural practice.