We acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which this podcast has been produced, and we pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to elders past and present. Welcome to SNAC, the Aged Care podcast where we break down some of the big questions around what it really means to be person centered. This podcast is brought to you by the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland, also known as ECCQ, the peak body for multicultural communities in Queensland. My name is Tana Roy Smith, and I’m a multicultural adviser from the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland’s multicultural advisory service. We support service providers with cultural diversity training and help to connect multicultural or culturally and linguistically diverse people with the services they need. Multicultural background. Today, we are going to talk about working with a client from a multicultural background. When working with clients from a multicultural background, it is important to understand cultural sensitivities so we can provide culturally appropriate care. Let’s look at a scenario where an aged care worker or support worker visits a client from a multicultural background. The client’s name is Maya Saunders, and she’s of Indian background, originally from Mauritius. This information of Maya’s background was provided when she first registered with the organisation. If you already know a client’s cultural background, I suggest you read up about their culture, get to know what language they speak, and if possible, learn their greeting. This will be a great start as most people love it when you greet them in their own language. It shows that you are interested in the client. And I say, Wanaakam in Tamil, which is my language. Now let’s look at what are some of the things that you might want to consider so that you provide quality care and also maintain the standards, policies, and procedures of your organisation.
Firstly, before you enter the house, you may see shoes being left outside the house. So should you or should you not take off your shoes? You can learn forever. But actually, I found it to become like a common Asian culture background from India and Vietnam, Chinese. We have something like wearing appropriate attire, can show respectful to take the shoe off before I enter the house, But over here, I I need to wear shoes, so I bring another shoe inside the shoe. Okay. In many Asian cultures, people do not wear shoes inside the house. So you may need to take your shoes off before entering the house. However, due to your organization’s workplace health and safety policy, you may not be able to walk shoulders into the client’s home. So what could you do in this situation? These days, many aged care organizations provide shoe covers to be worn over your shoes, and this could be explained to the client. The next thing we are going to look at is how would you address your client? Would you call Maya by her first name as we usually do in Australian context? Or will you address her by her last name, missus Saunders? It is best to ask how Maia would like to be addressed as some people like to be informal and are happy for you to address them by their first name. While others may like the formality of being addressed as missus Saunders as you have a professional relationship with them. The next factor we’re gonna consider is whether to accept refreshments or not. Now before you begin to provide care service to Maya, she may offer you refreshments like a cup of tea, coffee, or even a piece of cake that she has made.
Is it okay to accept the refreshments that Maya has offered? We have culture we share. We share food. We share communication when someone come to care for you. If it’s someone because because of different culture, sometime I feel like that’s why the rejected, even cup of tea or food from one we offer. You feel like not to accept it. In many cultures, offering refreshments is part of their culture. They see it as honouring their guests. Not accepting the refreshments could also be seen as offending Maya. On the other hand, accepting the refreshments also means you will be building rapport with your client and at the same time listening to their life experiences. This could help you understand the client’s needs better while you’re working with her. However, in some organisations, accepting food and drinks may not be part of the work health and safety you could you could explain this to Maya and politely refuse the refreshments offered while continuing to perhaps sit a moment, converse and begin to form a rapport with her. Next, we will be looking at communication. Communication is important in every conversation. It is even more important when we are speaking to people from multicultural background because there are many factors we must consider. Otherwise, it could cause confusion. How do we communicate when we are working with a client from another culture? Today, we will discuss verbal communication and non verbal communication. Verbal communication is what we say, and non verbal communication is what we don’t say, but still send a message to the other person through body language, gestures, and facial expressions. Sometimes, we may think that people understand what we are saying and but sometimes, you know, in some cultures, nodding, people may nod and we think, oh, yeah.
They are understanding what I’m saying. But it’s just a sign of respect. They may not be getting what we are saying. Let’s look at verbal communication first. It is important to know whether Maya is proficient in the English language, that she is able to speak and understand the English language even if she is not fluent in it. Many older people from a multicultural background may be embarrassed to tell you that they can’t speak English well, so they may mask it by saying, yes, they could speak the language. Remember, if it is just dealing with daily chores in the house and where to clean and so on, then it’s fine. But when it comes to discussing something important such as medical issues and care plans, if they’re not able to understand what you are saying, then it is best to arrange for an interpreter. Say for example, when you first start speaking to Maia in English and you realize that she’s not fluent or using gestures to speak to you, you may have to consider getting an interpreter for her. One strategy to assess whether Maya understands you is to get her to repeat to you that you have said to her about her care arrangements. If she doesn’t, then you may have to arrange for an interpreter. There’s a lot of advantages to having a an interpreter a face to face in the room with you. You get so much, more than just listening to the words, but you can actually see their body language which can tell a lot. You can only do that when you’re sitting in the in the room with the interpreter. We use telephone interpreters a lot. It’s actually a great way to engage really fast. We can connect you 2 with an interpreter within minutes.
Before visiting Maia, if you know that she needs an interpreter, you can contact the translating and interpreter service on 131450 and arrange for an interpreter to go with you, or book 1 for a phone or FaceTime session. It’s also important to let Maya know that there will be an interpreter either face to face or through telephone. It might be better to make this arrangement even before you make the first visit. The next part of verbal communication is to consider colloquial or slang terms, metaphors and acronyms. Slang terms are commonly used in Australia. They’re basically shortened versions of the actual words. Let’s look at some examples. Mozzy is a slang term for mosquito. Bicky is a slang term for biscuit. Metaphors are words or expressions which mean something different from their original meaning. I’ll give you some examples. Mary has a heart of gold, which means Mary is a good person. Another example is, I will give you a hand, which means I will help you. But imagine if I have recently arrived in Australia, and if someone said to me, I will give you a hand. I’ll be shocked and might think, why would you give me your hand? Another classic example is bring a plate, which means bring a plate of food. However, many people who are from a multicultural background may think to bring an empty plate especially when they have newly arrived in Australia. I will share a personal experience here. When I first came to Australia, I was invited to a party and was asked to bring a plate. Before going, I became so stressed as I was wondering whether I should bring a big plate, a small plate, a plastic plate, or a glass plate, and I also thought Australians are so generous that they were going to provide the food and I only had to bring an empty plate.
Thank goodness that I didn’t bring an empty plate as someone explained to me before I went to the party. Others were not as lucky as me. Some people have shared with me that they did bring an empty plate and became embarrassed when they saw other people bringing a plate of food. Many times, you may use slang terms and metaphors automatically without realizing you use them regularly. Even acronyms such as MAC, ACAD is confusing to a client, though it’s normal workplace language for many of us. So if you’re visiting your client and if you notice a blank or shocked expression on their face, your client may not have understood what you said, and it could have been your use of a slang term, metaphor, or an acronym. Now let’s look at nonverbal communication, which is a very important form of communication. I will define non verbal communication again. Non verbal communication is what we don’t say but still send a message to the other person. In many cultures, non verbal communication forms an important part of their life. So it is crucial to observe your client when you’re speaking to them. Some examples of non verbal communication are facial expressions including eye contact, gestures such as nodding of the head and pointing at someone or something with your finger or chin, personal space including touching, hugging, and kissing. Let’s start with facial expressions. In some cultures, people express their emotions outwardly, that is, you could see it on their face or through their behaviour. And in other cultures, their faces may not express any emotion when they’re happy, sad, or angry. Next is eye contact. In Australian context, making eye contact with the person you are speaking with is considered polite. If you don’t make eye contact, it is considered rude, not paying attention, being dishonest or bored.
However, in indigenous and some Asian cultures, making direct eye contact is considered disrespectful or confrontational. What about gestures? Examples of gestures include nodding of the head and pointing a finger towards someone or something. In some Asian cultures, people nod their head to respond yes or no to your question. So when you ask your client a question without looking at them, they may have answered by nodding their head. But if you did not see, then you may think they are rude for not answering your question verbally. So it’s important to be observant and recognize these forms of nonverbal behaviour. Also, please note that some gestures are acceptable in some cultures and offensive in other cultures. So it might be a good idea to read up about your clients’ culture before you visit them. We at Multicultural Advisory Service can help you with that. Please refer to our website www.eccq.com.au. The multicultural advisory service webpage is under the aged care section on the ECCQ website. Touch, hugs and kisses, are they acceptable and universal which means are they common to all cultures? No, they are not. They’re not universal and not acceptable in some cultures. In some cultures traditionally, touch, hugs and kisses are not acceptable whilst it’s generally considered being affectionate and acceptable in other cultures. So it may not be appropriate to shake hands, hug or kiss your client if they are from these cultures. A suggestion will be to just say hello or a greeting in their language when you first meet them and wait for cues to see how your client greets you. In summary, it is also important to remember that every individual is different and may have adapted their lifestyles to living in Australia. And what we have discussed so far may not be relevant to them.
The most important message you could take from this topic, working with a client from a multicultural background today will be, when you’re not sure about something that has been said or a situation, just ask or clarify with your client so that there is no confusion. Now let me talk about some of our resources relating to this topic. The Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland’s multicultural advisory team has a great resource, Little Book of Cultural Tips. It is a handy and useful guide that gives you lots of strategies when working with a client from a multicultural background. It is available for download on our website. We also provide cultural diversity training on different topics such as culture and dementia, culture and mental health, inclusive leadership, and working If you would like to know more about the little book of cultural tips or the training, please contact us on 0 431017943 or go to our website, www.eccq.com.au and search for multicultural advisory service. In this episode, you heard voices from other episodes in this season of snack. If you’d like to hear the full episodes, the links are in the show notes. Funding for this podcast has been provided by the council on the Ageing Queensland Home Care Workforce Support Consortium as part of the Home Care Support Programme, which was funded through grant funding from the Australian government.
