This three year statewide initiative is funded by the Victorian Department of Health to provide culturally diverse seniors aged 60 plus with information on elder abuse and access to social participation grants. We are looking for an innovative and appropriately skilled project officer to fill this position. Contact the Director on (03) 9349 4122 for further information. Go to Careers on our home page to download a Position Description.

Applications addressing the key selection criteria should be forwarded to The Director, Ethnic Communities’ Council of Vic. Inc, 150 Palmerston St, Carlton Vic 30535.00pm on Friday 17 February.

The IBIS Forum brought together representatives from government, business, education, the not for profit sector, and the community, to discuss social inclusion, diversity and citizenship. Specifically, the forum sought to explore current issues relating to multiculturalism, cultural diversity and intercultural relations, with a view to inform policy development.

Mr Sam Afra delivered an address on global diversity. The key challenge facing intercultural understanding, according to Mr Afra, is for individuals to learn to agree to disagree. He said, "We, as global citizens, must learn to respect and understand diverse opinions if [we] are to live successfully in the modern world". Mr Afra then highlighted challenges faced by "new and emerging communities" in the areas of "employment and housing, and the media misrepresentations of these new immigrant communities which contributes to "already strained relations". He argued for a need to improve media strategies and reporting guidelines so as to promote a commitment "to social cohesion, even in uncertain times". He noted that, "Multiculturalism should not be a scapegoat when addressing the civic problems we face".

Mr Afra concluded that the good governance of cultural diversity requires foresight and leadership as we "can’t afford to react to community needs once it has already reached crisis." Policy must be formulated

Mr Afra linked local diversity in Australia to a growing global trend in which cultural diversity has become increasingly visible and thus the global nature of diversity has become a local reality. For Afra, a strong multicultural Australia draws its strength from diversity and that within Australia"Victoria is the capital of multiculturalism".

To see the conference report summary click HERE.

Interpreting and translation are a critical part of providing services for culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Northern Health’s Transcultural and Language Services Department (TALS) recently won an Australian Institute of Interpreters award for their excellent service provision in health.

ECCV spoke with TALS coordinator Emiliano Zucchi about the innovations and initiatives that have made transformed health service provision in northern Melbourne.

What major changes have you initiated in your four years at TALS to bring about the Australian Institute of Interpreters award?

The four major strategies we have used are:

1. We moved from four to seventeen in-house interpreters.
2. We initiate trans-cultural training sessions in a very strategic way. We now run one hour presentations for health clinicians on topics such as; ‘how to work with a professional interpreter’, ‘what does diversity mean in the health context’, ‘how to work with patients of different religious backgrounds’, and ‘why children should not be used to interpret’. We do approximately 100 one hour sessions per annum.
3. We have introduced a translations database. This means we have hundreds of documents translated in the top eight languages. All the staff we employ are professional interpreters and translators, so we do all of our translating in-house.
4. We changed the parameters to include 25 per cent of all NESB** patients in all Northern Health research projects. We are now more prominent in culturally appropriate research for clinicians both within and outside Northern Health.

You have emphasized the business case for reducing length of stay in hospitals for CALD* patients. How important is it to quantify the benefits of translation services?

We noticed the literature was telling us was better patient outcomes increase with cultural competence. The length of stay of NESB** patients has dropped by about 30 per cent since TALS was restructured.

Increasing transcultural training and interpreting services has had a big impact. We know because we our interpretation 17, 000 in 2008 and over 40,000 in 2011. Using translators helps with cost containment because it aids communication with the patient and reduces consultation times.

How are you integrating technology into your work?

We introduced video interpreting a couple of years ago as a complement to face-to-face interpreting. We are using it, but not as much as we should because there are infrastructure problems. There needs to be a commitment to cameras in every consultation room. The technology is available, but has to be a better commitment.

I will be trialling the use of Ipads in wards this year to better deliver languages services.

Are there particular communities where you are seeing growth the need for interpreters?

It’s one of the issues that we face. New and emerging communities, particularly Horn of Africa and Iraqi, are not big enough yet to produce students who learn languages in a professional way. At the moment we are using effectively bilingual people instead of interpreters. Their language skills in English can be very poor. It is a high risk, but it’s better than using family members or no interpreter at all.  The challenge is to liaise with government and university institutions and schools so they continue to offer and improve current courses for emerging communities. 

What’s also happening is that established communities, such as Italian and Greek, are still using language services as the communities age so those service needs are growing.

What are the advantages or disadvantages of privatising the government translation services?

We support public private partnerships to improve public health outcomes. Agencies will always be needed, especially for the smaller languages and it’s important that is done in the patient interest. It’s important there is more cooperation and greater sharing of resources. 

How well do medical staff understand cultural competency?

At Northern Health is the understanding is good. Doctors are improving but they aren’t as good as they should be. The too often assume they don’t need an interpreter and they can use a family member. I argue that any medical degree should include a cultural competence unit.

Many of your staff interpret difficult news for patients in hospitals. How do you support your staff?

Interpreters can deal with very sensitive situations which can affect them psychology and physically. We have a monthly supervision session for our staff members to share experiences and get things off their chest. I find that the benefit comes from having someone there who listens to what they say.

If you know a CALD community member who should be recognised for their work or achievements in our next e-bulletin, please contact Sarah Hunt shunt@eccv.org.au. 

*CALD – Culturally and Linguistically Diverse

** NESB – Non-English Speaking Background

This week ECCV was quoted in Herald Sun article New Clamp on Muslim Haters, detailing Victoria Police's Prejudice Motivated Crime Strategy. Director Ross Barnett said of the strategy: "The elements of the strategy include training for officers, capacity to start collecting data so they've got a sense of what is happening, how it happens and what is the extent ot it." ECCV has been instrumental in initiating the strategy in 2010 and continues to work with Victorian communities to improve their safety.

Peter Mandelj served on the ECCV executive committee from 1988 to 2005 in various roles as both an executive committee member and treasurer.  He has been president of the Council of Slovenian Organisations for the past 20 years and has served the Slovenian community for more than 40 years.

Peter has also been elected as a representative for the Slovenian community in Australia to the Slovenian government.  Peter will travel to Slovenia to consult with Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janša and other ministers to put forward the concerns and issues of the Slovenian community in Australia.

ECCV wishes Peter well in his new role and looks forward to his continuing involvement with our organisation.

Senior Policy Officer Irene Bouzo presented Understanding Ethnic Aged Care: The Dilemma of Bonding and Bridging. The presentation

Media Advisor Sarah Hunt presented Emergent Media: Strategies for CALD Communities.

 For part two of these presentations please visit ECCV's youtube channel.

ECCV, Carer's Victoria and CMY believe that this paper is just the beginning, in terms of addressing the complex circumstances that surround these young people, their families and those whom they care for. It is for this reason that, alongside suggested strategies for service providers and support agencies, we have also included suggestions for further research. We hope that this paper may act as an important catalyst for further work in this area and ultimately to better understanding and support for the remarkable young people we seek to represent here.

Please click here to read Refugee and Migrant Young People with Caring Responsibilities: What do we Know?

Friday 23 September 2011

This week’s Herald Sun investigation into financial elder abuse shows that key resources are still not reaching our seniors. Nowhere is this issue more pressing than in Victoria’s ethnic seniors population – a group largely ignored by mainstream service providers.

Ethnic seniors now represent approximately 40 per cent of the elderly in Victoria, a figure which will only continue to grow as post-war migrants enter their golden years.

While general State Government estimates put elder abuse at around 5 per cent of the population, ethnic seniors face many additional challenges in combating financial abuse compared to English-speaking seniors.

The Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria’s (ECCV) research partnership with State Trustees and Monash University found financial abuse in ethnic communities included; withholding payments, physical neglect, extortion and emotional blackmail.

In these situations, there were often powerful cultural expectations that adult children would inherit family assets and many seniors felt pressured to meet these expectations. In ethnic communities, in particular, cultural values of dependency on the family mean reporting cases of abuse outside the family unit remains a strong taboo.

The biggest difference between mainstream elderly and non-English speaking seniors is that their ability to access help is limited by their levels of English. ECCV’s Ageing and Cultural Diversity Report  shows that as many non-English speaking people age, they lose their English skills and become isolated within their own language community.

Culturally and linguistically diverse seniors often have no one they can speak with about their situation in their own language and frequently don’t understand definitions of financial abuse. These difficulties are compounded by a many elderly migrant’s fear of government authorities, meaning many do not access generic services or Victoria Police.

The establishment of Seniors Rights Victoria by the former government has been a positive step to raise awareness in the community of this issue.  There still remains a gap, however, between these types of services and the ethnic communities they are trying to reach.

Non-English speaking seniors need special types of assistance and support to confront financial abuse. There needs to be greater levels of training for community health care workers to recognise elder abuse when it is happening. Furthermore, service providers need to be given proper training and access to interpreters so that elder abuse cases can be referred onto the appropriate authorities.

Elder abuse prevention depends on a coordinated roll out of community education to service providers, ethnic seniors and their families. Seniors of all backgrounds should have access to information and resources they need so our elderly can reclaim the dignity they deserve.

ECCV believes that the Australian Press Council's community engagement with ethnic and multicultural organisations strengthens the reporting on and cooperation between multicultural communities and the Australian media.

To view ECCV's recommendations to the Australian Press Council click here.

Mr Afra said migrants are hard workers and want to contribute to Victoria's economy. He added the government needs to give migrants a 'fair go' by recognising their qualifications and providing appropriate housing.

Listen to ECCV Chairperson Sam Afra on MTR radio. 

Some ethnic communities arrive in Australia to avoid persecution and violence in their countries of origin. ECCV understands many conflicts are complex and multifaceted. It can be difficult for communities to extricate themselves from conflicts when family and community members still reside in countries of origin or have had traumatic experiences.

Occasionally, ECCV is contacted to mediate inter-community conflict. As the peak body representing ethnic community groups in Victoria, ECCV does not represent one ethnic community group’s interests at the expense of another.

ECCV fosters community harmony by promoting the values of mutual respect, diversity and inclusion. As members of the Australian community, we have both rights and responsibilities to respect institutions and democracy. This includes refraining from resolving issues outside the framework of Australian law.  Our community’s strength resides in our ability to work cooperatively with other communities and build new inter-cultural relationships.

Mr Sam Afra, Chairperson, Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria

Last Friday, ECCV appeared on Channel Nine News in response to the conviction of a 31-year-old man for child abuse. ECCV does not believe 'culture' is an appropriate defense for acts committed against Australian law. 

To see ECCV's comments on Channel Nine News, click here.