A WOMAN committed to creating awareness and greater understanding of aged care issues in the Muslim community has received a Governor’s Multicultural Award as part of Harmony Day.
Mahjabeen Ahmad is a researcher, advocate and presenter on aged care for culturally diverse communities and is also project manager of the Muslim Communities Partnership.
She received the Most Outstanding Individual Achievement Award in Aged Care for initiating projects that promote her community’s health and aged care needs so that service providers have a better understanding of culturally appropriate aged care, palliative care and dementia care for Muslims.
Mahjabeen hopes to help aged care providers widen their view of religion and spirituality and the practice and traditions that come with that.
“When accessing aged care services, people have to disclose a lot about their health, family and financial situation, but they often leave out the question about faith,” she said.
“In a secular environment religion is not talked about.
“I would urge service providers to provide an environment where people can reveal their identity and cultural needs, confident that these will be addressed.”
Mahjabeen recognises that meeting the needs of a minority group can be challenging but also says they can’t be ignored.
“Provider organisations and community organisations should get together to develop creative and innovative ways to find solutions,” she said.
Through the Muslim Communities Partnership, which has been run by ACH Group, a suite of resources have been developed.
These include a guide book aimed at senior decision makers and a pocket guide for care workers as well as a video and an online training manual, which will be made available across the sector.