Dr Kristiana Ludlow from UQ’s School of Psychology spoke with 4ZZZ about a new program calling for young people in Brisbane to volunteer and help older people from CALD backgrounds living in aged care.
Volunteer-run aged care charity, Co.As.It Community Services is putting a call out to young people in Brisbane looking to volunteer and help older people from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds in their community.
Dr Ludlow spoke about the benefits of this program would have in aged care settings.
"Obviously you may not be able to pair people who are fluent, but just having somebody who is attempting the language or somebody who the older person could teach the language to- I think that is so beneficial," Dr Ludlow said.
"I’ve seen how not having that connection can impact wellbeing and social connection."
Community sourced aged care could be said to potentially help fill certain gaps in professional aged care, caused by staffing and structure issues.