Culturally Equitable Gateways Strategy
Municipal Association of Victoria
Background
In December 2003, the Victorian Government launched the Culturally Equitable Gateways Strategy (CEGS) in recognition of the underutilisation of HACC services by people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. Through this initiative, the Victorian Government aims to expand the use of mainstream HACC Program services by seniors from CALD backgrounds.
The CEGS program has provided 21 local governments with funding to strengthen their culturally responsive HACC core services. CEGS aims to achieve a culturally-friendly gateway to HACC services through capacity building of local government assessment and care management and through the development of partnerships with ethno-specific and multicultural organisations .
Initiative
Through the CEGS program, the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) has been funded to provide a key Leadership and Sectorial Development Role to support the implementation of the strategy at local, regional and statewide levels. The role of the MAV includes the following:
- develop a close working relationship with the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria
- development of a "Vision for a shared path between mainstream, ethno- specific and multicultural agencies in the delivery of culturally sensitive aged care services"
- showcase the work undertaken in the CEGS strategy at statewide CEGS Good Practice Forums
- identify systemic issues and advocating for solutions
- inform policy development
- participate in the development of evaluation tools for assessing the strategy over the three years
- facilitate the improvement of demographic and service utilisation data on the culturally and linguistically diverse elderly population to support local government HACC service planning
- facilitate partnership development between local government and ethno-specific organisations through information, education, resources and communication processes
- distribute diversity resources and knowledge.
Achievements
During the first year of implementation, the key achievements include:
- "building the building blocks" for developing and sustaining genuine and effective partnerships between local government, ethno-specific and multicultural CEGS funded projects
- analysing demographic and HACC client (MDS) data to obtain a better understanding of current usage of HACC services by elderly clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
- gaining a better understanding of the reasons for the under-usage of HACC services from elderly people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
- planning and developing collaborative strategies and workplans over three years to provide an equitable gateway to HACC
- developing strategies for promoting HACC to elderly people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Contact for further information
- Katherine Wositzky
- Municipal Association of Victoria
- CEGS Project Consultant
- Phone: 03 9489 9238
- Email: katherine.w@optusnet.com.au
