Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities
ADEC Newsletter
Winter 1998
A Bi-annual Publication of
Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities (ADEC)
13 Munro Street,
Coburg 3058 Vic
Australia.
Telephone (03) 9383 5566
Fax (03) 9383 5185
E-mail: info@adec.org.au
IN THIS EDITION
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[Content]
From the desk of the Executive Director
Stop Press
Profile of ADEC's Committee of Management
Community Education - The Somali Experience
ADEC Develops Demographic Statistical Profiles
Training Update
Advocacy for Survivors of Torture or Trauma (ASTT)
Access and Equity Strategy: Development for information Services
Community Education Manual
ADEC's Internet Homepage
National Respite Conference 1998
Cultural Planning Resources Kit - Now Available for Loan
Up-to-date Training for Social Support Co-ordinators
Feedback on our Newsletter Requested
INVITATION TO TRAINING ON THE CULTURAL PLANNING TOOL
Membership
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I would like to welcome readers to our latest edition of ADEC News. You will find after reading the content of this newsletter that ADEC has been involved in a range of positive initiatives over the past six months.
We would like to inform readers that His Excellency the Governor, the Honourable Sir James Gobbo, has agreed to become the inaugural patron of ADEC. Sir James has a long and distinguished role in supporting multiculturalism and multicultural services. On behalf of ADEC's Committee of Management, I would like to thank the Governor for taking on this role and look forward to his association with ADEC over the coming years.
Over the past six months ADEC has been busy developing its strategic direction for the next year. We are pleased with the final Business Plan that has been developed. Members of ADEC will find this Business Plan attached to this newsletter. If other readers would like a copy of our Business Plan then this can be obtained by contacting me at ADEC on 9383 5566
ADEC is undertaking systematic development of our information activities with the increasing use of information technologies. Our internet home page is now frequently utilised. Our library catalogue is soon to be located on a computer data base and will also be searchable over the internet.
Our role in supporting the development of the Disability Information Service System to better meet the information needs of non English speaking clients is seeing some very positive outcomes. ADEC is working with 23 funded Disability Information Services. We are assisting services to develop systems, processes and plans of action to allow for the better targeting of, and initiatives to support access for non English speaking clients.
In conjunction with this project ADEC is facilitating the marketing of these services through the production and distribution of 24,000 information directories to be translated into ten languages.
ADEC training activities are popular and well attended. We have ensured the accreditation our training programs with the Office of Training and Further Education and the National Training Authority. Our training programs are currently being delivered in rural areas, within hospitals, disability services, aged care and home and community care (HACC programs).
ADEC's torture trauma advocacy program is also making links between ADEC, newer refugee communities, refugee services and disability services more generally. The program is addressing the advocacy and support needs of people with a range of physical, psychiatric and sensory disabilities that have arisen as a result of an experience of torture or trauma
I trust that you find this edition of our newsletter informative. ADEC would welcome your feedback on content and layout. We would further welcome articles that would benefit our readers. Please telephone me if you have any comments or additions
Gabriel Maligeorges
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ADEC has just been informed that we have been successful in obtaining funding from the National Office of the Information Economy - Accessibility Program.
This funding will allow ADEC to develop a comprehensive catalogue of translated information about disability issues and services. This information will be available on the internet and will be easy to download for use by service providers and people with disabilities. The information will be searchable by a number of fields including language, disability type, issue and service type.
We have seen situations where services have translated material that has not been effectively disseminated. By electronically housing, cataloguing and consolidating such material, efficiencies will become evident. There will be less need to develop hard copy material and dissemination can be complemented by promotion of the site. This internet facility is tentatively known as "The Babel Tree". If you have any community language information that can be added to the "Tree", this would be welcomed. It is hoped that we might hold between 500 and 1,000 pieces of information on this site. If you would like more information about this project or would like to post any community language information on the site, please contact me on 9383 5566.
Gabriel Maligeorges - Executive Director
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ADEC's Committee of Management is made up of a committed group of people who bring to the organisation a range of skills and experience. Our Committee of Management includes:
- Edward Sciberras - President.
Eddie is a carer of a person with a disability. Eddie has been involved with ADEC for approximately six years.
- George Bisas - Chairperson.
George is the Manager for Training and Information with the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission. George has been involved with ADEC for approximately six years and is ADEC's delegate to the National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA).
- Fran Draycott - Secretary.
Fran is currently the Manager of the Inner South East CATT and Consultant Liaison & Triage Psychiatry Unit of the Alfred Hospital. She has had long experience working in psychiatric services particularly psycho geriatric services and has specific interest in the needs of older people with disabilities.
- Lucio Naccarella - Treasurer.
Lucio is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Program Evaluation. He has experience in evaluation research and system change, and has conducted evaluation and research in the fields of health promotion, community health and psychiatric disability.
- Helen Patsikatheodorou - Committee Member.
Helen is the Director of the Broadmeadows Multicultural Early Learning Centre. She is also President of the Victorian Neurofibramotosis Association and has been a member of the ADEC Committee of Management for approximately four years.
- Laila Elguindy - Committee Member.
Laila is a carer of a person with a disability. Laila has been involved with ADEC for approximately ten years. Laila is involved with the organisation known as Arabic Women's Solidarity Association and is a broadcaster on the weekly 3CR radio program, Voice of Arabic Women.
- Maria Cesarello - Committee Member.
Maria has been involved with ADEC for about ten years. Maria is one of the inaugural life members of ADEC and is currently employed as the project worker for the Western Region Disability Service Network.
- Frances McKay - Committee Member.
Frances is currently employed as a Literacy Specialist ESL teacher at Parade College. Frances has previously been employed as an Early Intervention teacher. She is studying language development in non English speaking children.
- Maree Ivey - Committee Member.
Maree is the Director of Northern Care & Share, a Northern Region based social support and transport coordination program for people who are frail aged and for people with disabilities. Maree has been on the ADEC Committee of Management for approximately four years.
- Harvey Ritchie - Committee Member.
Harvey is one of our newest members. Harvey is currently employed as Employment Placement Coordinator at Geelong Employability and is able to bring to ADEC a regional perspective to disability issues.
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Earlier this year, ADEC continued with its mission to promote community education programs in the area of mental health to ethnic communities. As it was targeting the Southern region, ADEC chose to form an alliance with Prahran Mission's Ethnic Mental Health Outreach program.
Given the slow but steady increase in numbers of people from an African background, it was agreed that the Somali community be targeted. A Somali Women's Group existed which met in Prahran and it was felt that this group might play a crucial part in the consultation process with this community.
As with any community development, forming key links and networks were necessary first steps. This involves forming relationships with key individuals and peak bodies and developing a meaningful and trusting rapport with key community members.
Making inroads with this community was difficult as they are still at the early stages of establishment and do not have many resources such as community workers to facilitate work with them. They also do not accept information from people outside of their community easily. In working with the Somali community and by engaging peak organisations and their representatives, we became aware that we were often engaging a mainly male perspective. In order to be able to develop a community education program appropriately, we needed to understand the historical and political context that defined the Somali people. We were able to locate Somali workers who were actively engaged with their communities to do this. This involved consulting with people outside of the Southern region - something we had not envisaged.
SOMALI CULTURE AND RELIGION
With the networks we established, we were able to learn a great deal about the culture and religion of the Somalis. Somalis have their own language called Somali Land.
As Somalia was colonised by England and Italy until 1972, these languages were also known and spoken. These languages are no longer considered second languages of Somalia.
Islam is strictly adhered to in all aspects of their lives and this differentiates them from other African groups.
Indeed, children are usually expected to know the Koran before they start school. The interactions of Somalis with each other and with those from outside of their community are governed by Islam and the Koran. Gender roles are strictly delineated and very important. Clan and political alliances may affect interaction between men.
Family law in Somalia is totally aligned to the Koran even though there is a civil and criminal legal system. For example, rape does not exist as a crime. Women would not report it as it damages their "marriageability" status and responsibility for the crime would be placed on the woman.
The extended family (clan) enables men to have up to four wives but they are obliged to provide equally for each of them. Somali women are expected to look after the children of the other wives when necessary. Married women need the permission of their spouses in order to participate in any activities.
CONCLUSION
We realised that the presenting cultural issues necessitated a change in our approach with the Somali community.
Given that it was very difficult to provide information directly, we decided that the most effective means would be to provide this education to the community workers so that they are aware of the mental health system and would be in a better position to pass this information on.
We hope to be able to develop an appropriate education program for Somali community workers with the networks we have developed.
Barbara Ghiani and Malina Stankovska
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ADEC is in the process of developing basic statistical profiles on non English speaking communities in the state of Victoria. These profiles will provide ethnicity data for each of the Department of Human Service Regions and for every Local Government Area in the state, and are based on Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.
At this stage, these statistics can be studied at ADEC and will assist service providers and researchers in the development of marketing activities, policy and service development and other priority setting. For more information about these profiles, please contact Gabriel Maligeorges on 9383 5566.
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The accreditation of the advanced training course developed by ADEC "Planning for Culturally Relevant Services" has significantly increased the general interest in our training programs. It has been encouraging to have an increased interest in training from both rural regions as well as expanding our training services to both the Western and Southern regions of the Department of Human Services.
CALENDAR EVENTS
Interest in ADEC's calendar training has continued to flourish with full participation in each course. The two courses offered this year are accredited and certificates of participation are provided upon completion. Courses offered:
A. Cross Cultural Communication
A course which provides participants with the skills to appropriately and confidently communicate with people from non English speaking backgrounds. The course is ideal for direct service workers. Contents include:
- Language identification.
- Effective use of interpreters (on/off site).
- Preparation of translated materials.
Only one course remains for 1998.
Code Date
A9804 Wednesday 26 Aug 1998
B. Planning for Culturally Relevant Services
A course which provides participants with the skills to pan culturally relevant and accessible services. Service barriers will be systematically identified and ideas for positive changes will be generated. Contents include:
- Policy development.
- Data collation.
- Service review.
The course is ideal for managers, coordinators and supervisors. Only one course remains for 1998.
Code: B9803 Date: Wednesday, 23 Sep. 1998
All courses will be held at ADEC House - 13 Munro Street, Coburg
ACCESS AND EQUITY STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT FOR INFORMATION SERVICES
This project involves providing support and assistance to twenty three disability services in order to increase access and equity for people from non English speaking backgrounds.
Training is a significant component of the support offered to each agency and it is estimated that approximately 80 days of training will be generated by this project.
SERVICE SPECIFIC TRAINING
Requests for service specific training has also significantly increased and training has branched out into areas beyond disability services. Requests for 1998 have included the following:
- Mildura Base Hospital
- Sunraysia Community Health Centre
- Wangaratta Aged Care Services
- Disability Services Training Unit
- Equal Opportunity Commission
- City of Hobson's Bay
- City of Boroondara
- City of Knox
- Maroondah Hospital
- Essendon Hospital
- Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind
HOME AND COMMUNITY CARE (HACC) TRAINING
ADEC has been successful in its training tenders for both the Northern and Western Region of the Department of Human Services and has been recently requested to provide training in the Southern Region. Each region has requested that training be tailored to assist HACC services with the implementation of the Cultural Planning Tool. Additional training provided by ADEC in these regions has included:
- Communication training.
- Advocacy.
- Managing complaints.
The training unit aims to provide training in each of the nominated regions in the following year.
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The ASTT program has now been operational for six months. Below is a summary of program activities to date.
1. SERVICE STATISTICS
To the end of May, nineteen people had been directly assisted by the advocate. The main countries of origin of clients are Former Yugoslavia (Bosnia), Iraq, Iran and Ethiopia. Other nationalities include Eritrean, Somalian, East Timorese and Sri Lankan, with the average length of residence in Australia being three years.
The source of referrals has been quite varied due to the extensive marketing of the program. The program has had multiple referrals from Refugee Programs including Foundation for Survivors of Torture and the Refugee Mental Health Service. Other referral sources include Disability Services, Social and Community Workers, Ethno Specific workers, Tertiary Education Bodies, Community Health Centres and Government Institutions (e.g. Centrelink).
The three most common requests for assistance are in accessing employment (including determining eligibility for/linking into specialised employment services), priority housing and financial assistance. Further issues arising include accessing ethno specific counselling, emergency accommodation, recreation, access to hearing aids, and educational/further training options.
2. NATURE OF SERVICES PROVIDED
As the target group are from newly arrived communities, resolution of an issue can be a lengthy process. This is due to a range of circumstances including: language barriers, cultural differences, lack of skilled interpreters, lack of ethno specific health professionals, lack of understanding or fear of Mental Health Services, lack of understanding or fear of personal mental health status, and the stigma attached to disability, particularly psychiatric disabilities. These factors, coupled with the basic vulnerability experienced by people arriving in a new and foreign country, has resulted in more time (in comparison to the general Individual Advocacy service) having to be spent developing trust between the advocate and the client prior to effecting change. In cases where the urgency for change was paramount, the advocate has worked on behalf of the client through the client's case managers (e.g. counsellor), family or friends.
Further to this, the program has provided support to case workers working with the target group, e.g. resourcing disability services seeking ethnic/cultural information and ethnic services seeking disability specific information.
Most of the requests include seeking information on what services/resources are available, eligibility and access rights.
3. SERVICE OUTREACH
To the end of May, sixty one agencies were visited specifically to promote the ASTT program. Agencies targeted can be summarised as ethno specific, disability specific, health and refugee/ settlement services. The advocate also had representation on joint working groups that comprise of ethno specific workers and mental health workers with the aim of addressing an under representation of people from non English speaking backgrounds (with a focus on new arrivals) in health services (with a focus on mental health services), through increasing knowledge and understanding of the health system. One working group that the advocate is currently involved in is targeting the Arabic speaking community.
4. COMMON ISSUES ARISING FROM THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF OPERATION
The assumption in the submission for funding of this program '...that refugees with disabling conditions do not make use of available disability services, and often do not fit easily into established eligibility criteria... ', is correct, and thus far can be attributed to two main reasons.
The first is that both refugees and workers who provide services to refugees are often unaware of the type and range of services available to people with disabilities
The other issue requires a more profound attention. As mentioned previously, there is fear and stigma attached to having a disabling condition, with refugees being very reluctant to identify as having a disability, and therefore are ineligible for disability services as they do not apparently meet eligibility criteria.
For example, a woman was referred by a refugee mental health service and after an explanation of various levels of support she could gain through Disability Services Programs (employment focused) and DEETYA, she said that there was nothing wrong with her and she didn't need any help.
On feeding this back to the referrer, the Advocate was informed that she had been undergoing intense counselling for approximately three years and has a psychiatric disability as a result of torture/trauma experiences.
She has also, to date, been unsuccessful in finding employment, and there were doubts as to whether she would be able to maintain employment without some form of specialised support.
In this situation, the Advocate is unable to proceed further in linking the person into a service that could offer the support she required as she would not pass, on paper at least, eligibility criteria.
Specialised services for people with disabilities/disadvantages need to expand their criteria to incorporate the classification of 'refugee' as a basis for eligibility to ease the referral process. Further to this, specialised services staff, particularly public service staff who determine eligibility for extra assistance, require training to make aware the issues and experiences of refugees (for example, a Centrelink Disability Officer told me that she didn't know what countries refugees are corning from, and therefore was not alerted to the possibility of extreme disadvantage when meeting with clients).
Both issues are slowly being addressed over the course of the Advocate's work through information dissemination and raising the awareness of service providers. We look forward to continuing this program into the 1998/99 financial year.
Rosy Kos
Advocate
CASE STUDY
A woman from Bosnia, 'Hanifa ' was referred by a Disability Officer from Centrelink, as the Officer was concerned that Hanifa was not coping emotionally or financially. Hanifa has two teenage daughters, and together arrived in Australia four years ago after spending approximately one year in a refugee camp. Hanifa had recently moved into a (private rental) two bedroom flat after staying with friends, where she and her two daughters had shared one bedroom for three years.
Hanifa had outstanding bills from her previous accommodation as well as having to bear the cost of moving and buying furniture etc. for the flat, leaving her no money for food. Emergency food vouchers were organised to alleviate the initial crisis.
Further actions included:
- the advocate alerting the Student Welfare Coordinator at Hanifa 's daughters school of their financial difficulties for future concessions;
- the advocate negotiating with Telstra for manageable repayments of an outstanding bill which prevented an imminent cut off of service;
- the advocate assisting with upgrading Hanifa 's Department of Housing application to Priority. This involved linking Hanifa in with the local Tenants Union and meeting with Hanifa's doctors for statements of support;
- Linking Hanifa into a rehabilitation program with the aim of becoming job ready.
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1. PROJECT UPDATE
ADEC has been funded by the Department of Human Services Disability Branch to work with twenty three Disability Information Services in the development of Access and Equity Action Plans to address the needs of clients from non English speaking backgrounds and their carers.
Aims of this project have included the following:
- To ensure that each service has the capacity to address the current and future needs of people from a non English speaking background.
- To ensure that each service can identify and address the issues, concerns and barriers to service access for people from non English speaking backgrounds.
- To ensure that program planning processes are relevant to the needs of non English speaking clients and their carers.
- All agencies are currently engaged in the project at varying levels with the completion date estimated to be January 1999.
ADEC has provided support and assistance with both the development and implementation for each agency of individual Access and Equity Action Plans. This has been a challenging process as each agency has varied needs and experience working with diverse ethnic groups.
2. TRAINING REQUESTS FROM PARTICIPATING AGENCIES
The most common request for support from each of the nominated agencies has been for a variety of training modules. Each service has received a specifically tailored training package at the conclusion of training for the purposes of ongoing staff induction. Common training requests have included the following modules:
- Understanding culture and cultural diversity.
- Language identification and effective interpreter use (on/off site).
- Conducting service reviews.
- Networking with ethnic communities.
- Policy development.
- Dealing with racism in the workplace.
- Developing relevant promotional material and dissemination plans.
Many agencies have requested both direct service as well as management training.
3. SUPPORT REQUESTED FROM ADEC BY PARTICIPATING AGENCIES
Due to the diverse needs of each agency, the support requested from each agency has varied and in some cases has been very challenging.
Some of the support requested includes the following:
- Needs analysis of various regions.
- Review of promotional materials and internet sites.
- Data collection (demographic data pertaining to ethnic communities).
- Web site searches.
- Development of induction materials for ongoing staff development.
- Provision of language identification maps.
- Resource listings of ethnic organisations, structures and networks.
- Dissemination plans.
- Development of quality assurance mechanisms.
4. AGENCIES PARTICIPATING IN THIS PROJECT
- ARBIAS
- Assoc. for Children with a Disability
- Association for the Blind
- Australian Brain Foundation
- Better Hearing Australia
- Communication Aids User Society
- Cystic Fibrosis Association
- Down Syndrome Association
- Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria
- Headway Victoria
- Huntington's Disease Association
- Motor Neurone Disease Association
- Multiple Sclerosis Association
- Muscular Dystrophy Association
- National Federation of Blind Citizens
- Paraplegic & Quadriplegic Association
- Parkinson's Victoria
- RVIB
- Spastic Society of Victoria
- Victorian Council of the Deaf
- Victorian Deaf Society
- VSDC
- Yooralla
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A manual for the provision of community education about disability and disability issues to people of non English speaking backgrounds is currently being completed by ADEC.
The manual will be a resource for disability workers, community health workers, ethnic organisations and other service providers for multilingual community education programs on disability awareness.
It is envisaged that this resource will be used to promote the rights, needs and issues affecting people with disabilities by providing accurate information about services and resources in relevant community languages so that access to current services and resources are increased.
The contents of the manual will be translated into community languages and will be disseminated to relevant ethnic communities.
Current manual contents include:
- Understanding disability.
- Service system in Australia.
- Diagnoses and prognoses.
- Service rights.
- Decision making and choice.
ADEC is planning a launch to promote the manual and details will be advertised in future newsletters and correspondence.
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AND THE COMMONWEALTH DISABILITY SERVICE STANDARDS
We would like to remind readers that our Internet Home Page is now ready. This homepage contains relevant information about ADEC programs and services.
The homepage also contains ADEC translated material that can be easily downloaded, as needed by Consumers and Service Providers.
ADEC has recently included basic community language information about the Commonwealth Disability Service standards on the internet. This information can be readily downloaded and used by Disability Service Providers in standards review processes.
The homepage is proving to be a popular compliment to ADEC's information role. Approximately 6,000 hits were recorded on the site during the last financial year.
The ADEC internet address is:
http://ariel.unimelb.edu.au/atmhn/adec/
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A HAND IN THE FUTURE
CARERS, QUALITY & BEST PRACTICE
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Royal Parade, Parkville Victoria 11-13 November, 1998
This important biennial event has attracted in excess of 350 participants to each of the last two conferences. The 1998 conference is jointly auspiced by the Association for Children with a Disability and Villa Maria Society.
The conference themes are Carers, Quality & Best Practice. You should attend if you are a Carer, Service Provider or Policy Maker with an interest in making respite options accessible and acceptable to those caring for people with disabilities, the aged and the terminally ill. Carer attendance is being supported by generous concessions to the conference fees and by committing any further sponsorship received to fund Carer participation.
ENQUIRIES TO: Jacqui Pierce - Thursday only.
Ph: 03 95001232
Fax: 03 9500 1240
ADEC Updates our Library Information Service
Following a review of ADEC's role in data maintenance and dissemination, we have undertaken to review and update our library. This has involved a review of our entire library holding, and the cataloguing and indexing of our entire holding on a computerised library data base.
Further to this task, ADEC is seeking to incorporate our library data base onto our internet homepage so that interested people can search our holding via the net. Further to this, ADEC has had some preliminary discussions with the Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network about networking our two holdings over the internet. This will significantly broaden the range of relevant multicultural resources available for use by interested researchers and workers in the field.
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ADEC has recently produced one hundred copies of the Cultural Planning Resources Kit for the Department of Human Services, Aged Care Branch.
The aim of the Kit is to provide resources and support to HACC funded services in order to facilitate the implementation of the Cultural Planning Tool.
The Kit contains the following publications and resources.
- Cultural Planning Tool (CPT)
- The CIARR (Client Information & Referral Record) NESB (non English speaking background) Resource Kit
- Multicultural Aged Care Services Directory
- Organising Translations
- Working with Interpreters
- Speaking of Diversity
- Home & Community Care Cross Cultural Training Manual
- Strategies for Access & Equity in HACC - Compulsive Competitive Tendering (CCT Manual)
- A Starting Point
- Cultural Assessment Guide for Aged Care - Assessment Teams (ACAT)
The Cultural Planning Resource Kit can be borrowed by making contact with your Regional Departmental HACC Project Officer. Alternatively, ADEC has five Kits available at our office.
If you would like to borrow this Kit then you will need to make arrangements with Gabriel Maligeorges on 9383 5566.
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The Department of Human Services has recently approved a project to undertake a review of the training modules for HACC funded Social Support Program Coordinators.
ADEC has been funded to undertake this review and the project aims to develop a competency based learning resource package that clearly reflects the identified skills required by Social Support Coordinators.
The project has recently commenced and will involve the mapping of skills with corresponding competencies, the development of learning resources, the development of strategies for flexible delivery of learning resources and the documentation of strategic planning and learning resources.
The outcomes of this project will be:
- To enhance the quality of service provision.
- To provide a relevant and responsible training package that meets and addresses the identified needs.
- To ensure that Social Support Coordinators in the Aged Care and HACC services gain the appropriate skills and understanding.
The project worker at ADEC, Keryn Hibbit, looks forward to input from Social Support Coordinators within HACC or Aged Care services. If you would like details on this project, please contact Keryn on 9383 5566.
Semra Tirli
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We would appreciate you taking some time to provide us with feedback about ADEC News in order to ensure that our Newsletter remains relevant to your needs.
We would appreciate it if you could provide us with feedback to the following questions;
- Do you find this newsletter useful and informative?
- Are there articles that we could write about that have not been addressed in our newsletter but could be in future editions?
- Would you like to receive more frequent editions of this newsletter? (Currently we produce two editions per year)
- Would you like to see the newsletter produced in other formats?
- Would you like us to provide you with extra copies of our newsletter? (Please inform us of numbers)
- Can you make any other comments about layout or design of our newsletter?
Please telephone Gabriel Maligeorges on 9383 5566 if you have any comments or additions.
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ADEC was contracted by the Department of Human Services (HACC Branch) in 1996 to co-ordinate development of "THE CULTURAL PLANNING TOOL"
Selection for this project was a result of ADEC's expertise in cross cultural planning, research and training
The Cultural Planning Tool will have implications for all HACC funded services and planning will need to occur in order to successfully address the needs of non English speaking members of the HACC target group.
ADEC recognises that many HACC funded services will need support, assistance and guidance to successfully implement the Cultural Planning Tool and as a result meet the requirements of funding and service agreements. We have developed a training program to assist HACC services to understand and implement all aspects of the Tool.
The training program has received accreditation with the Office of Training and Further Education (OFTE) and has been piloted and well received by over one hundred HACC training participants.
Participation in ADEC's training program will provide participants with skills in the following areas:
- Provision of a range of policy and planning frameworks and objectives for flexible and equitable service provision.
- Information and resources to competently address the requirements of the Cultural Planning Tool
- The development of strategic workplans which prioritise cultural planning goals.
- Assistance to strategically plan for the needs of non English speaking members of the HACC target group.
Training programs can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your agency on requested dates or you can attend one of our nominated training days.
All training is fee for service and more information can be obtained by calling our Training Co-ordinator on 9383-5566 or returning the enclosed attachment.
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ADEC promotes and protects the rights and responds to the changing needs of people with a disability who are of non-English speaking background and their carers
We thank you for taking an interest in the work of ADEC and would like to encourage you to become a member of our organisation.
The Management Committee are working very hard to achieve our mission as set out above. ADEC provides advocacy, information and support to people with disabilities and their carers who are from non-English speaking backgrounds. ADEC also provides training, consultancy and advice to service providers in working with non-English speaking consumers.
You can become a member of ADEC by returning the form below with your remittance. Memberships of ADEC automatically places you on ADEC's mailing list. You will receive discounts on the sale of ADEC publications and training. You will also received ADEC newsletters, notices of workshops, public meetings and other events conducted by ADEC.
Four further information about membership, please do not hesitate to contact our Executive Director, Gabriel Maligeorges, on 9383 5566.
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Membership fees for ADEC:
Concession Pensioner(Individuals) $ 2.00
Individual, Other and Family Membership $ 5.00
Organisational-Voting Membership $25.00
Organisational - Affiliate Membership $25.00
Click here to view membership form
Send applications to: ADEC 13 Munro Street Coburg Vic 3058 - Membership entitles you to discounts on the cost of publications & training Please note: Acceptance of ADEC membership and membership status is dependent on Committee of Management
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