Out of Service?
Elizabeth
Drozd, Director, Australian-Polish Community Services Victoria
Introduction
One
of the biggest challenges facing the Polish community in Australia is
the provision of adequate care for our elders that is also culturally
and linguistically appropriate.
In
my presentation I will provide you with actual examples of inappropriateness
and inequity in service provision that exists for older Australians
of various ethnic backgrounds, including Polish older persons.
Demographics
(an overview)
Some
of you may be surprised to learn that the Polish community has the third
largest number of older persons of all ethnic groups in Australia. Between
1947 and 1953 almost 50,000 Poles came to settle here. The majority
were Displaced Persons who had been forced into slave labour camps in
Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Some were as young as 15 and
16 years of age. Many never saw their families again. Of those 50,000,
today we have a population of 28,000 who are over 65 years of age, the
majority being in their late 70s and early 80s.
Discrimination,
Past & Present
Based
on my own experience and that of my colleagues in working with our Polish
elders, I am pleased to stand here and say that older Polish citizens
living in this country are not discriminated against intentionally.
This could not have been said at the time when the majority of them
came to Australia. Some of the examples they have shared with us include:
someone spat on a Polish newspaper a man was reading on a tram; banks
had signs near the cashiers which read: "SPEAK ENGLISH".
Present-day
discrimination takes another form: we as a community are not being treated
fairly with regard to service provision - to be more exact, with regard
to aged care.
Cultural Considerations
Older
people of Polish background, in a snapshot, could be described as a
quiet community, conforming rather than standing out. I believe that
because of this, the current pressures on the service system, and the
limited lobbying of elected members of parliament and government departments
by the Polish community itself, the funds received for aged care within
our community are inadequate and disproportionate.
Delayed Delivery
At
the beginning of 2000, Polish older persons in the western region of
Melbourne had to wait, on average, five years to access a Commonwealth
funded service called Community Aged Care Packages which enables the
provision of individualised and holistic care based on each person's
needs. I am pleased to say that the situation for our community regarding
that particular program has improved and the waiting list is now about
six months, which is comparable to the general community. It took us
14 months to achieve this remarkable change.
There
are almost 1500 elderly Poles living in the western suburbs of Melbourne
and currently some have to wait up to three years for a service known
as Day Care, which is part of the Home and Community Care Program funded
by the Commonwealth and State governments.
To
the best of my knowledge, no Australian-born counterparts, have to wait
so long for this type of service. One of my staff conducted a brief
research on waiting lists for this program managed by the so called
mainstream organisations in that region. Again it appears that Polish
older persons have to wait the longest to receive care, according to
their service choice and that is: a service provided the Polish way.
Resource Distribution
As
I mentioned earlier, Polish older persons do not consider themselves
a group discriminated against because of their ethnicity or because
of their age. But rightly and understandably, many are disappointed
that after living here for 50 years - paying taxes, contributing to
this society, rarely asking for help in the past - they cannot get access
to a service that is linguistically and culturally appropriate for them.
Inappropriate
service response and unevenness in resource distribution on the part
of government departments seem to be the two main reasons for elderly
Polish people not being treated fairly or as well as their Australian-born
counterparts.
It
seems to me that this unevenness in resource distribution is unintentional,
and it is not targeted specifically at the Polish community. I believe
it is a result of the current system of funds distribution, political
and bureaucratic processes, and the lack of close monitoring and evaluation
of access and equity in service provision.
The
Polish community is not an exception in this regard. The Italian community,
which has by far the largest number of older persons from all ethnic
groups in Australia, faces similar challenges and often there is an
inadequacy of funds to meet the basic needs of their older members.
The Greek community has the second largest number of older persons shares
the similar concerns and issues.
Communication
Barriers
Our
experience of working daily with the ageing Polish community shows that
they experience high levels of service disorientation; have limited
access to information about the range of services available and how
to get access to services that may be relevant to them: they are often
not aware of their rights and responsibilities.
There
are two other factors which also impact on their treatment as service
users and they are: the attitudes of the practitioners versus cultural
practices, and the degree of confidence and assertiveness a client has
when dealing with staff in various organisations.
In
addition to the unacceptable waiting lists for support services, some
of the examples of situations that we have dealt with include:
