Baptcare – Westhaven Community, Footscray
Finalist - Excellence within Aged Care Services
Baptcare Westhaven is a high-care residential facility situated in Footscray, one of Melbourne’s most culturally diverse suburbs. Care is provided to 127 residents from 14 different, mainly Asian, countries. The majority of the residents come from Vietnam and southern China. The proportion of Westhaven residents from Asian countries has continued to grow, with local demographic data indicating that this number will continue to increase. Local referrers and stakeholders had noted to Westhaven management that there is a shortage of culturally inclusive aged care options in the area.
In response to this local need for high quality, culturally inclusive aged care, Westhaven management embarked on a review and consultation process in 2012, identifying opportunities to better accommodate older Asian people culturally and linguistically at the facility. A key outcome of this review was the development of a care unit for people from East and South-East Asian backgrounds, the Lotus Area, and the integration of Asian languages, food and culture into the environment of Westhaven. This area includes culturally and linguistically relevant decoration, signage, written material, landscaping, and recreation.
As part of the project, a number of innovative initiatives have been implemented. For example, Westhaven Lifestyle have focussed on building a library of resources. Drawing of the popularity of gambling style card games they created a new bingo game using the familiar mah-jong symbols. This simplified game can be played by people with a degree of dementia quite easily and has proved to be popular with residents and their families. Another outcome of this process was examining new ways to approach staffing and volunteers.
There is a genuine sense of community in the Lotus area that was not present before. This change has been reported by staff, residents and their families in reviews, as well as anecdotally by visitors to the facility. For individual residents, this increased engagement has been visible through a change in behaviour, such as increased participation in shared areas, increased communication with other residents and with staff, both within the Lotus area and the broader facility. These individual resident outcomes demonstrate that person-centred care, that is more engaging and relevant, can provide better care outcomes.
The creation of the Lotus area, an ethno–specific wing within a generalist aged care facility, has resulted in a more culturally inclusive care environment for residents. It also addresses a growing local demand, and is a financially sustainable approach to meet future need. Asian people within this facility have been noted as being more engaged with staff, each other, but also with the broader resident community as a whole. The feedback from existing residents and their families is strongly positive, and the waiting list for residents from these Asian communities is increasing.