Out of service?

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, which has the second largest number of older persons, shares 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:

• Doctors not organising interpreters because it is too expensive.
• Staff in a nursing home located in country Victoria being unable to communicate with a female, older Polish resident. As a result of an audit by the Aged Care Standards Agency, a Polish interpreter was called and found that the battery in the woman's hearing aid was flat and she could not hear anything.

Recommendations

Nevertheless, service provision regarding people from non-English speaking backgrounds has come a long way in the last 15 years, although areas for further improvement continue to exist, and I would like to make the following recommendations:

• Making interpreters available and employing bilingual staff where possible.
• Staff training in the area of cultural sensitivities and understanding.
• Commitment to adequate and appropriate aged care by governments and senior management in service organisations.
• Effective information strategies to promote better understanding and acceptance.
• Inclusion of contract compliance provisions in funding agreements.
• Monitoring and evaluation of service agreements' implementation so that policies and practices continue to improve.

Conclusion

We as a community support the development of the Age Discrimination Act on the condition that public education regarding its aims and complaint processes is part of this initiative. Older Polish people, like many other people, are reluctant and in some cases afraid of making complaints due to possible repercussions. The adoption of the suggested minimum national standards for the provision of essential goods and services, especially in health care, would be a very good start. This would help improve services which tend to neglect cultural differences and special requirements.

Let me finish with a quote by Anthony Powell who said in 1969: