Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care (PICAC) is a national initiative, established by the Australia Government in 1997, that aims to assist older Australians who were born overseas.

The program funds an organisation in each state and territory of Australia to develop and provide resources and information sessions to residential and community-based aged care service providers.

Through this, PICAC aims to:

• Support aged care service providers to deliver culturally appropriate care to older people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds
• Help older people from CALD backgrounds and their families make informed decisions about their aged care needs.

AHA was engaged by the Department of Health to evaluate PICAC, to help inform future delivery of the program. The evaluation assessed the program’s:

• Successes and challenges, including delivering PICAC services to emerging communities and rural and remote communities
• Effectiveness, including what was working, what was not working and why
• Appropriateness within current aged care reform and program settings, including identifying gaps in current service provision, and national consistency in service provision and resource design.

The evaluation included interviews and engagement with:

• PICAC program coordinators from each jurisdiction
• The aged care and CALD sectors, through an online consultation paper
• Rural and remote stakeholders, plus representatives from emerging communities.

The final report is available on the Department’s website.