Assyrian Chaldean women’s group in The Victorian Arabic Social Services

The Victorian Arabic Social Services is funded by Department of Health and Aging for another year till July 08 to work in promoting Community Partners Program (CPP) to the Arabic Speaking communities across the Northern and Western regions, and develop sustainable partnerships with Residential Aged care facilities across the two regions.

The aims of CPP are to increase access and delivery to Arabic speaking Communities to Aged Care Services. Also to provide the communities and the Aged Care support services with resources to enable them to make informed decisions about Aged Care Support Services and deliver culturally appropriate care.

As part of our plan we have conducted a number of tours with community groups (Assyrian & Arabic) to residential care facilities. Four ladies from the Hume Assyrian Chaldean women’s group had attended one of many tours at a Residential Care Facility and were interviewed on their opinion before and after the tour to residential care facilities, their responses were:

Before:
“Had no idea on the services available at residential facilities”
“Worried where would my children place me if they no longer care for me at home”
“Had bad experiences with overseas nursing homes”
“Nursing homes are seen as shameful and not of a high standard”
“Nursing homes overseas are run by charitable organisations for destitute people”

After:
“My opinion totally changed, saw the services and good care given to the elderly”
 “Felt the facility visited has a welcoming & warm feeling”
“The tour made me feel relax and at ease if the choice need to be made for me to enter a residential facility”
“Glad that I have visited the residential facility, as now I feel more comfortable and highly recommend others to do the tour as well”.

These tours have been very successful. We intend to do more tours in the coming months, we invite the readers if they are interested to join our tours and information sessions, we can be contacted at VASS on 9309 0055 during working hours. Please ask for Eva Wakim, Coordinator of Aged Care Services or Babel Ochana (Bella), CPP Project Officer.