Australian Greek Welfare Society

Special Projects

The Special Projects Unit has continued to provide AGWS with a unique opportunity to develop and implement innovative projects that target the new and emerging needs of the Greek community across Australia.

Introduction

Since its establishment in 2004, the special Projects Unit has undertaken the co-ordination of the following funded projects:

“Australian-Greeks against Childhood Obesity”, “Greek Grand-Parents Week – Photographic Exhibition"
“Greek Problem Gambling” and the
“Falls Prevention for the Greek Community in Australia”.

These projects have provided AGWS with a unique opportunity to implement a wide ranging number of innovative ideas in delivering the specific outcomes of each project.

It has also enabled the Greek speaking community to access information on issues that are affecting a significant proportion of the population.

The Special Project Unit has also continued to seek new funding opportunities that have not been “traditional” sources of funding for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities (CALD).

As a result, proposals for funding are being submitted to a variety of funding bodies on an ongoing basis.

AUSTRALIAN-GREEKS AGAINST CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROJECT

Currently in its second year of operation from funding that has been made available by the Telstra Foundation through the “Telstra Community Development Fund” this project has managed to actively promote the message that healthy food choices and regular physical activity are key ingredients in the battle against childhood obesity.

The project has reached many hundreds of children, parents and grandparents. Through a series of interactive workshops and seminars that have targeted children, parents and grandparents, the project has managed to effectively promote the importance of healthy eating and exercise. It has also highlighted the many benefits of the “mediterranean cuisine”

The effectiveness of the project can also be measured by the fact that many grandparents and carers have found much of the information that has been presented to them as useful, relevant and topical.

Many have also expressed a desire to access more information on nutrition and preventative strategies to childhood obesity. Concerns have also been raised regarding their children’s exposure to the influences of the media and their advertising campaigns relating to fast foods and snacks.

With regards to the findings of the project to date, it is clearly evident from the responses received thus far from the community, that there is a definite need for the provision of information on the prevention of childhood obesity.

In addition, the need for active recreation appears to be an area that is of great interest to the community and in particular, the availability of culturally and linguistically appropriate activities. This will assist the older Greek community with their efforts to act as role models for younger children by becoming more active themselves.

Research has shown that Australian children are at risk of becoming obese if appropriate prevention strategies are not implemented both at home and at school. At the heart of the problem is the relative increase in children's food intake and decrease in physical activity. For Australian-Greek children, the risks are greater due to the fact that they are being cared for by their grandparents who as a result of language difficulties and cultural perceptions may not necessarily be receptive to the growing message that young children are at risk of becoming overweight and obese adults.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001 Census data, there are 36,084 Australian-Greek children aged between 0-14 in the state of Victoria. A large number of these children tend to be cared for by their grandparents of whom the majority are Greek born, retired and ageing. They also tend to have very poor levels of proficiency in the Greek language. This would suggest that this group would be significantly disadvantaged in their efforts to access information that is disseminated through conventional mainstream services. This in turn has implications for Australian-Greek children whose food choices and exercise opportunities are mainly determined by their dietary habits and lifestyles of their care providers.

The "Australian-Greeks Against Childhood Obesity Project" will therefore aim to address the issue of childhood obesity amongst children of Australian Greek background in Victoria between the ages of 0-14. It will look at the causes of childhood obesity and raise the Greek community's awareness through the provision of linguistically appropriate information and community education to the target group, that will clearly outline preventative measures.

The project will also promote the importance of healthy eating and exercise to the Greek community through interactive workshops that will offer participants the opportunity to develop healthy eating and exercise plans.

FALLS PREVENTION AND THE GREEK COMMUNITY

The prevalence of falls within the general community is a significant issue when you consider that one in three people over 65 will fall at some stage of their lives and that 60% of falls occur in people’s homes while the risks of falling also increase with age. For this reason, the prevalence of falls within the Greek community will be further impacted upon when you add additional burdens such as isolation, deteriorating health, lack of physical exercise and poor proficiency in the English language.

Furthermore, the Greek community in Australia is ageing at a significantly faster rate than that of the general population. As a result, the number of health and other related issues that are confronting the community are steadily increasing and the prevalence of falls is fast becoming a major issue of concern for the community and will increase rapidly over the next 10-15 years.

One of AGWS’s newest initiatives is in the area of “falls prevention”. AGWS was recently successful in receiving funding for the “Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities Falls Prevention Project”, from the Department of Health and Ageing.

Through this project, AGWS will raise the awareness of the National Falls Prevention for Older People Initiative within the Greek speaking community. AGWS will work in partnership with Greek community organisations and Greek media organisations in all Australian States and Territories. This collaborative approach has over time, proven to be the most effective in distributing information to large proportions of the Greek speaking population.

AGWS will target Greek speaking communities across Australia and provide them with greater access to information and data that will assist them in their efforts to better plan and implement falls prevention strategies both at home, meeting places and within the general community. The Greek speaking community will also be provided with the skills and knowledge to develop, implement and evaluate falls prevention strategies that are tailored to their needs by utilising the following strategies:

Organising interactive workshops for the Greek speaking community in all of the Capital cities of Australia.
Organise seminars on issues relating to falls prevention in all the Capital cities of Australia.
Assist Greek community organisations to develop fall prevention plans for their meeting places and ensure that all of their buildings are “Fall Safe”.
Educate community leaders on the importance of developing, implementing and evaluating falls prevention strategies and sharing this information with other members of their group by organising specific courses on falls prevention.
Implement a campaign with Greek media outlets across Australia that aims to educate the community on issues relating to falls prevention and implementing falls prevention strategies.
Develop appropriate resource materials in the Greek language such as pamphlets and fact sheets that will be made available for free distribution to health professionals, other mainstream service providers and carers of the elderly. These resources can be downloaded from AGWS’s website.

Work for this project has commenced and reference groups are currently being set up in all capital cities. Funding for this project has been made available by the Department of Health and Ageing.

RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN-GREEK COMMUNITY

There is an ever growing need for AGWS to effectively respond to the new and emerging needs of the Australian-Greek community. As a result, the Special Projects Unit assists in this area of work by responding to the increasing demand for information and resources on a variety of issues including health, lifestyle, dementia, diabetes, palliative care, mental health and in particular depression. In the last year, AGWS has organised seminars and forums as well as media campaigns that have covered these any many other issues.

As the Australian-Greek population is ageing significantly faster than the general population, it is becoming increasingly evident that the community's need for culturally appropriate recreational services need to be developed. It seems that the ability to live a healthier lifestyle is often something that eludes a significant proportion of the Greek population.

In its efforts to investigate and document the level of understanding of the benefits of living an active lifestyle, AGWS distributed a questionnaire as part of a community consultation process. The intended target group were Greek speaking people who were of retirement age or very close to it.

Through this process, we determined the communities perceptions of what the benefits of regular exercise are as well the levels of physical activity that Greek people are participating in and how often. Furthermore, we were able to determine what barriers were preventing Greek speaking people from taking part in regular exercise either on their own or through organised groups.

A total of 700 questionnaires were distributed across the Melbourne Metropolitan area of which 250 completed responses were received. The initial results have demonstrated that there is a definite need for further education and information provision on the benefits of regular exercise and the impact that it has on living a longer and healthier life. In addition, it also appears that more opportunities to participate in organised groups need to be developed and targeted towards Culturally And Linguistically Diverse(CALD) background communities.

Unfortunately, initial results also suggest that despite all the health benefits associated with exercise and healthier living, there are significant numbers of people that are not taking up regular exercise as a part of their normal day routines. In some ways, this may in part be attributed to the fact that people from CALD backgrounds have additional barriers in accessing recreation services and organised exercise programs.

The age distribution of the participants to the questionnaire, is a good representation of our intended target group. The vast majority of participants were aged over 56 years. This grouping represented 87.6% of the sample population.

It should be noted that the questionnaire did not seek to identify the type of sporting and physical activity that each individual was involved in, because we didn't want to preclude anyone from identifying their interpretation of what they perceive physical activity to be. Interestingly enough, there was a total 83 responses where no activity was identified. This represented 33.2% of the sample group. While at the same time, 62.8% identified themselves as currently being physically active, with the majority (50.3%) of this group being active for between 1 _ 2 hours per week.

General research has shown that older adults who take part in regular exercise are often as healthy as people who are 15 _ 20 years younger but who are less active. For this reason, our work in this area is vital if it are to be successful in assisting our ever increasing ageing population with accessing real opportunities to improve their quality of life.

In the next 12 months, AGWS will seek to collaborate with Councils to develop local recreational solutions and seek to ensure the governments develops programs that are effective in addressing the needs of the Greek community and CALD communities in general.