There is a growing crisis in the country's disability and aged care sector as a crippling staff shortage leaves a gap in linguistically-diverse carers - at a time when multicultural Australians in need of care increases.
Busi Faulkner, Managing Director of Home Care Nurses Australia (HCNA) and says ensuring there is adequate culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) staff to meet clients needs is paramount in delivering a quality, holistic service.
HCNA is QLD-established and has expanded interstate to NSW, WA and VIC and SA, specialising in providing individualised care to some of Australia’s most vulnerable populations.
“People in their older age often regress to their first language and as Australia becomes more multicultural, this is more commonly not English,” Busi said.
HCNA support worker Charis Berden went to the extreme of spending her own time to learn the basics of the Samoan language in order to better communicate with a client.
Ms Faulkner said the government fast-tracking skilled migrants to the sector would not only be a solution to the current workforce shortages being felt across the country, but would help to fill this gap by ensuring multicultural elderly Australians have access to CALD support workers.
“It is all about embracing culture. In Zimbabwe where I am from, the whole family helps when someone is ill or unable to care for themselves as they once could. Home Care Nurses Australia is the equivalent of that for vulnerable Australians.”
