Dementia Care

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14 Australian Journal of Dementia Care December 2016/January 2017 Vol 5 No 6
for CALD people living with dementia.
In these facilities there are few familiar
cultural cues to engage and orient people
with dementia fromCALD communities.
This increases their anxiety and can isolate
them from lifestyle activities and even
traditional meal-time routines. For
example, for someone from a Jewish
background, their sense of being Jewish
can be supported each time they engage in
the ritual practice of hand washing before
meals if a tap, jug or basin is provided in
the dining area. If these things are not
present, this simple Jewish ritual cannot be
followed. Understandably, this could be
quite upsetting for the person and lead to
so-called behaviours of concern.
Unfortunately, even innovative facilities
commonly underuse cultural resources
and only concentrate on, for example,
ethnic food and religious services. Cohen
&Moore (1999) suggest that people’s
cultural identity and personal history are
not taken into consideration by staff and,
as a result, the resident’s traditional
pattern of interaction and ways of
conducting their daily activities are often
completely absent.
Language
The ability to maintain language and
culture is particularly important to the
well-being of older people fromCALD
backgrounds (Runci et al 2006). It’s
common for residents fromCALD
communities to want to retain the
CALD dementia care resources
PICAC (Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care): This is a national
initiative funded by the Australian Government to support residential
and community aged care service providers to deliver culturally
appropriate care to older people from CALD communities. Seven
PICAC organisations (the PICAC Alliance) provide a range of activities
including culturally specific training and professional development in
areas such as culture and dementia and cultural awareness;
resources; and demographic data. Details:
Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing (funded by the Australian
Government to provide services in Victoria as part of the PICAC
program): as well as providing training, consultancy, resource
development and project work in that state, the centre’s website has
an excellent resources section on dementia care which includes:
• A practice guide with a list of key considerations for addressing
cultural diversity in care services.
• Communication cards for enhancing communication with people in
their preferred language. They depict a range of daily activities and
situations that can be used to prompt discussion, assist with
directions and clarify needs. These are free to download and
available in 25 languages.
• Aged care signage: a package of signs for aged care facilities and
services to help clients navigate their way around a home or service.
Free to download and available in 25 languages.
• Publication links to multilingual aged care and health resources
produced by other organisations.
• Cultural diversity and ageing research, Census data and
demographics, reports and service usage data.
Available at:
CALD guidelines for dementia patients in aged residential
care : This publication by Dr Kathy Peri and Dr Gary Cheung
(University of Auckland 2016) covers CALD principles, a suggested
model of care, and best practice guidelines when working with CALD
residents with dementia in areas including communication, food,
eating environment, personal care, psychosocial perspective, spiritual,
emotional support, traditional therapies, meaningful leisure activities,
palliative care, and assessment. Available at:
Dementia care and culture: for environmental services staff:
often environmental services staff (cleaning, laundry and maintenance)
have little or no formal training about caring for individuals with
dementia. Many are also from non-English speaking backgrounds.
Dementia care and culture: for environmental services staff
(L Bilogrevic & B Harrison, Multicultural Aged Care Services
Geelong Inc, 2015) is a workbook designed to be used in a face-to-
face, facilitated workshop with environmental services staff working in
multicultural residential aged care. It’s free to download and while the
content can be used with acknowledgment of the source, it’s not
designed for staff to work through without guidance. Available at:
Dementia information in other languages: translated advice, tips
and strategies on the most common issues, in 42 languages,
produced by Alzheimer’s Australia and available for download at:
Perceptions of dementia in ethnic communities (Alzheimer’s
Australia Vic): a practical resource kit to assist planners and service
providers better understand and develop appropriate services for the
varying support needs of older CALD Australians from Arabic, Chinese,
Croatian, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian,
Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese communities. It has individual
community profiles and the following information for each: migration
history and language; perceptions of dementia; diagnosis and
treatment; role of the family; attitudes to community care; attitudes to
residential care; attitudes to counselling; religion and its role in dementia
care; key issues to consider; key community contacts; and dementia-
specific information. Available at:
Culturally Appropriate Dementia Assessment Tools: (Alzheimer’s
Australia Vic): standard assessment tools, such as the Mini-Mental
State Examination (MMSE), are not easy to translate and administer
to CALD populations. This site has links to resources developed for
screening and diagnostic assessment of people from non-English
speaking backgrounds. The tools include: the Rowland Universal
Dementia Assessment Scale; screening tool guidelines for
practitioners, service managers and policy makers; and the Dementia
Outcomes Measurement Suite (DOMS). Available at:
DOMS and other assessment tools are also
available on the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre’s
DementiaKT Hub website at
eCALD website: the resources here, including Cultural Competence
Assessment Tools, are free to download and include a cultural
competence self-assessment checklist to help organisations, service
providers or individuals determine their level of cultural competence.
Available at:
An outline of different cultural beliefs at the time of death
(Loddon Mallee Regional Palliative Care Consortium): a brief resource
which may assist healthcare workers to understand the different
cultural or religious approaches to death and dying. Available at:
Community profiles for health care providers: is a practical tool
to help health workers better understand the health beliefs, pre-
migration experiences, communication preferences and other aspects
of their clients’ culture, for 18 multicultural communities. Developed
for Queensland Health by Dr Samantha Abbato in 2011. Available for
free download at: