By Margot Garnier

Interculturalism is enriching the care home environment – but issues of discrimination persist, according to the findings of a year-long project conducted by Age Action Ireland.

Thirteen care homes in north Dublin were involved in the charity’s Intercultural Care Home Project, supported by the European Integration Fund, which involved meetings with 64 residents and questionnaires sent to managers and staff.

Project officer Ann Moroney presented the conclusions in front of Age Action members and care home representatives recently, noting that with “one out of three members of staff [coming] from another country … we wanted to identify some significant difficulties they are facing.”

Moroney added: “The aim of the project is to embed interculturalism within care homes in north Dublin and to use the learning from the project to promote that development within the whole country’s provision of residential care for older people.”

Most respondents agreed that interculturalism enriched their environment. But there were also significant issues raised, according to Moroney.

“Thirty-two staff members or managers declared to have experienced some sort of discrimination or prejudice,” she said.

Age Action organised training in seven homes, where participants shared many positive and negative experiences in relation to working in multicultural teams.

“Through the discussion, what we noticed is that there is a sense of regret that the workforce is changing among the Irish staff and that there is a sense of isolation and difficulties for the ethnic minority staff confronting to prejudice and discrimination,” said Moroney. “But ideas came up about how people can work better together”.

In its report, Age Action has also made recommendations to facilitate work within multicultural teams. Chief among these is the development of a working equality policy within each care home to prevent any cultural misunderstanding and develop a strategy to protect people facing difficulties.

Some steps are already underway in homes such as those run by Fold Ireland (Cherryfield and Anam Cara) in an effort to celebrate their diversity. 

“We organised a diversity day where staff was invited to wear traditional dress, bring food from their countries and share their culture,” said care services manager Martina Conroy.

Age Action is now seeking more funding towards implementing further recommendations, as it continues assisting the managers of participating care homes on developing their equality policies.