At Afford Health Care, we value and encourage culture and diversity. We believe each participant has the right to embrace their culture, values and beliefs and in promote this in our practice. Our policies and procedures reflect on embracing all participants from all walks of life. Diversity and inclusion are a huge part of who we are – we know that when people with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives come together, great things happen for our community.
Central to our induction process for participants include understanding the cultural needs of the participants. In addition and as part of our community participation activity, we promote and celebrate all different cultures that participants are from to ensure that they feel they belong.
Furthermore, we endeavor to have on-going events for participants where we do a wide variety of activities that incorporates multicultural activities.
Also as part of the on-going professional development for support workers, we endeavor to provide continuous yearly training for support workers on cultural awareness and diversity.
At Afford Health Care, we value and encourage culture and diversity. We believe each participant has the right to embrace their culture, values and beliefs and in promote this in our practice. Our policies and procedures reflect on embracing all participants from all walks of life. Diversity and inclusion are a huge part of who we are – we know that when people with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives come together, great things happen for our community.
Central to our induction process for participants include understanding the cultural needs of the participants. In addition and as part of our community participation activity, we promote and celebrate all different cultures that participants are from to ensure that they feel they belong.
Furthermore, we endeavor to have on-going events for participants where we do a wide variety of activities that incorporates multicultural activities.
Also as part of the on-going professional development for support workers, we endeavor to provide continuous yearly training for support workers on cultural awareness and diversity.
At Afford Health Care, the most central part of our philosophy is the respect and protection of privacy and dignity of each participant. At the induction phase we ensure that all participants understand their rights. This will also be reiterated in the documentation of the induction packages.
All staff working with participants will be signing a confidentiality agreement form to ensure they are aware of maintaining the privacy of participants.
Central to our practice on privacy are the following:
- Each participant will have access to information and support to understand and exercise their legal and human rights
- Each participant will receive a service that maximises their choices for social participation and cultural inclusion
- Each participant will receive a service in an environment free from discrimination, abuse, neglect and exploitation
- Each participant will receive a service that reflects their right to privacy and have their personal records and details about their lives dealt with in an ethical and confidential manner in line with relevant legislation
- Each participant can expect Afford Health Care to support and encourage self-protective strategies and behaviors that take into account their individual and cultural needs.
At Afford Health Care, we place a great emphasis on participant’s freedom of choice, and decision making. At the induction phase, we engage with participants/participants families with a series of questionnaires to get an idea of the activities and preferences that they demonstrate interest in, which is relayed to the support worker.
Central to our practice on decision making and choice is:
- We respect the right of each participant to be at the center of decision making and to have responsibility, as much as possible, for each decision which affects them
- We support each person to determine the involvement of their family, careers and advocates in planning and decision making processes
- We respect the views of family and careers in planning and decision making processes. The participant with the disability has the final say in the process
- Staff and volunteers respond in innovative and flexible ways to each person’s need for decision support which reflect their individual and cultural needs
- We make every effort to enable a person to make a decision or assist families, careers and advocates to come to an agreement before a substitute decision maker is engaged.
At Afford Health Care, strict policies are in place in relation to violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination. Afford Health Care will ensure services are conducted in an environment free from discrimination, financial, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, neglect and exploitation.
We encourage and support access to advocacy services by people with a disability to promote their rights, interests and wellbeing.
Action and Harassment Prevention are fully implemented with respect to both its staff and its Clients and their representatives.
We take all types of allegations very seriously and ensure that management conduct thorough investigation to any form of allegation.
Allegations are recorded and reviewed and the necessary procedures followed through to ensure the safety of the participant is maintained.
At Afford Health Care we ensure that day to day operations are managed in an efficient and effective way. We have a communication book for all management to go through on a daily basis.
We have a roster that is sent out to all support workers at the start of every week.
In the event that a worker is absent, we have a list of casual support workers that are on call and are ready to take that shift.
During the time that a participant is employed with Afford Health Care, we ensure that participants get the service they need. This will be conducted by doing regular monitoring on support workers, such as conducting on-spot visitations.
In addition, management team will be regularly in contact with participants to ensure that they are satisfied with the quality that is being provided by the support worker.
We have a strong systems approach to ensure that we are in contact with participants when any changes occur.