Ananda champions cultural safety for Aboriginal residents

Ananda Aged Care and Linking Futures are delighted to announce a partnership to increase the capacity of aged care staff to provide culturally safe care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents.

Ananda Aged Care is a family-owned organisation which operates two aged care homes, a 137 bed home in Hope Valley and a 67 bed home in Findon, and has 333 staff.  The origins of ‘Ananda’ being defined as ‘great bliss’, captures the foundation and spirit with which we deliver holistic care, striving at all times to enhance the well-being of our residents through meaningful experiences and best-practice service.

Linking Futures is a professional services company which works with clients to develop their capacity to work with Aboriginal clients and meet expectations of the communities in which they work.  They support companies and government to meet Indigenous procurement targets and enhance their relationship with Indigenous Australians.

The partnership will focus initially on the development and delivery of cultural safety training for staff, involving advanced skills training for staff at Ananda during 2020. In 2019 Ananda established a Diversity Action Group and appointed its first Diversity Champion, with special interest in the Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Intersex communities (LGBTI). In keeping with our Diversity Champions model we will use this partnership to build the capacity within Ananda to develop champions for the Aboriginal and other Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities.

As the partnership matures it is anticipated we will work towards a unique “Culturally Safe Place” endorsement and recognition model, whereby Ananda is in a position to be a pilot for a model where organisations are audited and recognised as a culturally safe place and service in terms of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Ananda’s Workforce Development Manager, Michael Page, welcomed this innovative partnership and said: “Ananda Aged Care upholds a strong tradition of providing aged care services based on authentic family values and a history of pride in treating every resident and staff member as part of our extended Ananda family. Having facilitated training with Parry Agius in the past it was a natural fit to work together with Linking Futures to try to make Ananda the home Community see as part of their family.  I am excited for this opportunity to embed culturally safe practices within our Resident Focused Care model, specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents though also for all cultures and communities.”

Parry Agius, stated: this is a great opportunity for Ananda to extend their networks in the health and aged care sectors and to build stronger relationships which benefit all their clients including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and their families. Linking Futures look forward to working with Ananda Aged Care to ensure they continue to be seen as a leading provider of Aged Care services.

We now invite staff at any level within the organisation who are interested in cultural safety, for Aboriginal and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse residents to reserve a place on the program.

We are also looking for a Diversity Champion to be trained to support the care of Aboriginal residents and staff. This person should have an interest in developing cultural safety skills and does not need to identify as Aboriginal.

This initiative links paticularly to Standards 1 and 2 of the Standards.

Aboriginal artwork – Hope Valley reception

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