“The most dominant question, complaint or issue raised with the managers, general managers or the CEO was ‘where are your Greek-speaking carers?’,” she said.
The organisation was finding there were simply not enough multilingual aged care staff available in Australia. Fronditha rostered at least one Greek speaker to work at all times, but this person was often having to juggle multiple requests.
“[Residents] were trying to say, I don’t feel well, I’ve got a pain in my chest, or something like that, and there was always the risk that no-one would understand what the person was asking,” Ms Fisher said. “The most dominant question, complaint or issue raised with the managers, general managers or the CEO was ‘where are your Greek-speaking carers?’,” she said.
The organisation was finding there were simply not enough multilingual aged care staff available in Australia. Fronditha rostered at least one Greek speaker to work at all times, but this person was often having to juggle multiple requests. “[Residents] were trying to say, I don’t feel well, I’ve got a pain in my chest, or something like that, and there was always the risk that no-one would understand what the person was asking,” Ms Fisher said.