04 Oct 2022
News
Each year in the first week of July, NAIDOC Week is a time to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Pathways to Care would like to take this opportunity to reassure our participants that we prioritise the nuances of working in a personalised way with everybody, every day. This can be in relation to a person’s regional, intellectual or cultural needs.
In honour of NAIDOC Week week, we can explore some of the enriching work we get to do at Pathways to Care to work alongside our participants with Indigenous Australian heritage.
We are so lucky to work alongside some amazing local services, that provide rich perspective alongside great quality service. BDAC (Bendigo District Aboriginal Co-Operative) and BADAC (Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative).
In our work in referring to BDAC and BADAC, we often refer our participants to their support to:
Support people with appropriate communication.
Ensure that professionals are treating participants respectfully.
Provide a culturally safe avenue to address unfair treatment and cultural barriers.
Provide intellectual human resources to promote empowerment.
Educate providers on cultural notions of family and kinship inclusion.
Offer a range of culturally enriching programs in the recreational, social and health domains.
It’s important to promote cultural safety as part of any service. The concept originated in response to the harmful effects of colonisation and the ongoing legacy of colonisation on the health and well-being of Indigenous Australians.
Keeley Goldrick, our National Manager of Support Coordination reflects on some of the activities that we have worked collectively on, which include mentoring, health services, and art and social programs.
“I am a part of a range of care teams where cultural identity is a really important consideration for the participant. I have great respect for the work and input that the BDAC workers bring to the conversation, especially when we have tried a range of different supports that have been unsuccessful or unrewarding for our participants. They are open to working collaboratively to create a range of creative programs that interest and support participants in the right ways.”
Find out more about how we support our participants through Plan Management, Support Coordination and Specialist Support Coordination.