specialty focus
ACI : How common is racism in aged care ? BB : Racism , anecdotally , we know is really common in aged care . It ’ s not reported or discussed in a kind of quantitative way . We haven ’ t done a survey , although there is now one underway . So from anecdotal reports , we do know it ’ s very , very common , and from qualitative research studies where interviews have been done with aged cared workers , we know it ’ s really common .
Why is there so little research available on the issue ? There is research that has looked into it , but it ’ s really on the margins and a lot of it is qualitative . So what that means is the people have interviewed aged care workers and managers for the most part . There ’ s not really been a concrete survey , definitely not in Australia . But what has been done in Australia shows very clearly that there is racism . It ’ s very widespread . It ’ s reported across all migrant worker communities . So it ’ s not just restricted to particular communities .
We know that some communities or some workforces experience it in much higher and more severe degrees than others do . So we know , for example , that African communities which work in aged care encounter a lot of racism on a dayto-day basis .
How are people generally affected by racism in the aged care sector ? Abuse is really levelled at this workforce , and they ’ re abused on the basis of their skin colour . So it ’ s very common that you will hear people saying , “ Well , we don ’ t want the black girl to come and look after us or to treat us or to assist with feeding or bathing or whatever .” We often hear people ’ s accents been critiqued . So , oh , they ’ ve got a very heavy accent , they don ’ t speak English properly . We can ’ t communicate effectively . Where ’ s this person come from ? And lots of “ go back to your own country ” and assumed incompetence on the part of the staff just because they have a thick accent or don ’ t speak English with an Australian accent .
Do you feel that it has become more prevalent recently ? It has definitely gone up in prevalence over the last few years , and that is a large part driven by the fact that the aged care workforce is a more multicultural one , especially the frontline staff . So your personal care assistants , they and some of your nurses are much more multicultural than they ’ ve ever been before . It ’ s a workforce that typically comes from India , the Philippines , and parts of Africa . So it ’ s those areas that soon , often new migrants , new arrivals , aged care is offers a good opportunity to secure employment and let ’ s build your new life . But also by virtue of that fact , the workforce is more multicultural . So at the moment , running in about 40 % of the aged care workforce being from a culturally linguistically diverse background and that will rise .
Aged care and nursing are highly female-dominated sectors . What role does gender play in people ’ s experiences of racism ? Definitely , I mean , we sort of use the academic term of intersectionality , but the more , I guess , blunt answer is it ’ s a female-dominated workforce that is poorly paid and high casualized . When you add cultural conflict and racial abuse into the mix , you are basically piling on what is already a very vulnerable workforce .
So without sounding too harsh , it ’ s easy to beat down on those who are already beat down . It ’ s much harder to push back against those who are already advantaged . What happens here is we , as a community , in some ways when there is racism , we are reinforcing existing vulnerabilities and disadvantage .
Providers are hiring more overseas staff to plug shortages . Do you expect that racism will become even more prevalent in healthcare ? Well , it ’ s an opportunity , and we ’ re at a crossroads . So by bringing in more overseas workers to staff aged care facilities , they are coming from low and middle income countries and typically from the Asia Pacific region . We don ’ t have to see an increase in racism . This is really an opportunity for us as a sector to educate residents , families , other staff , and the management about treating people in a culturally safe way , treating people with respect and therefore getting the best out of that workforce . Will it affect retention in the long term ? Well ,
“ Many people come from countries that culturally revere older people , so it aligns with their values .
I would suspect yes it will . That would be an absolute tragedy because very often in these situations what happens is workers are disenfranchised . They ’ re not likely to complain , they ’ ll leave , they ’ ll find another source of employment , a safer workplace , and they will leave . That is to everybody ’ s detriment . So that ’ s one level of the tragedy .
But the other level of the tragedy , and again , this also goes back to that earlier point I was saying about opportunities . The research that we did showed that migrant workers , especially women , intend to stay in aged care . They want to work in that sector . They like working in the sector because it aligns often with their values . Many people come from countries that culturally revere older people , so it aligns with their values . They see it as a way to give back care to older people in a way that they can ’ t do because they ’ re away from their families . They also like the kind of , I guess , the stability , the employment , but the flexibility of it because then they can often work their rosters around their children and other family commitments . So if all of those positives are outweighed by kind of racial abuse in a day-to-day basis , then we really missed out .
Do you think we can see any changes in the near future ? on the one hand , we are bringing in a more migrant workforce . This workforce has a lot of skills and talents that we need to harness and then we can do a lot with it if we engage productively and positively . I ’ m very much of the view when we are talking about care , that you cannot necessarily take an advocacy approach . You can ’ t take an adversarial approach . You have to take a more relationship-building approach where what we want to do is take everybody along on that journey with us . We don ’ t want to fight with people . We want to sort of change hearts and minds to promote a bigger culture of respect and engagement because only under those circumstances can you really deliver good person-centred care , which is so important . ■
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