Chung Wah Community Care crosses cultural barriers for advance care planning
A guest blog by Amar Varsani, Project Officer Quality Enhancement at Chung Wah Community Care
* Chung Wah Community Care team members pictured above (L-R): Sally Fan - Project Officer; Cindy An - Clinical Team Lead; and Amar Varsani - Project Officer Quality Enhancement.
Chung Wah Community Care is a not-for-profit home care provider, dedicated to improving the quality of life of individuals from diverse backgrounds. We provide essential home care and support services to over 800 culturally and linguistically diverse clients in Perth, supported by over 160 office and support staff.
We have been fortunate to participate in the ELDAC Linkages Program, which gave us the opportunity to reflect and review our end-of-life care systems. With the support of our facilitator, we developed a project plan to holistically review our existing systems, identify gaps, and implement changes with the aim of improved outcomes for our clients and staff.
The existing policies and procedures were reviewed, and some changes were implemented. We then reviewed our record keeping systems, care planning, and assessment to reflect quality end-of-life care. Next on the plan was staff training in end-of-life care using available resources from the ELDAC website to develop staff knowledge and build their confidence.
We then provided our clients with information and encouragement for the uptake of advance care planning (ACP), crossing some cultural barriers and building bridges. For most of our clients, talking about death is taboo, so we had to have a careful approach, understanding the cultural inhibitions. We engaged with Dr Wei to build trust over several sessions, providing information in their language, and encouraging the uptake of ACP. Our clients were supported to consider and fill in forms for ACP, and we are delighted that with the support of Dr Wei, we have built inroads for continued conversations about end of life with our clients and their families.
Our involvement in the ELDAC Linkages Program has been a worthwhile and good experience. We have been able to apply the knowledge practically at our hub where procedures and processes were reviewed to accommodate requests from family and meet the modified palliative care needs of our consumer. This included meetings with the family carer, staff, and clinical team meetings, and providing training to staff to help them to make observations about end of life and to know the process for escalation. The family was appreciative that the client was able to continue engaging with the community she was familiar with and getting the best quality of life possible over this time.
The ELDAC Linkages Program has enhanced our understanding and knowledge of end-of-life care for all our staff and our wider community through to our clients and carers! Our involvement in the program stands by our motto of ‘building a better community for all’.