One of the highlights of 2019 for Health Issues Centre project manager Zoe Austin-Crowe was working with Local Aboriginal Elders on a creative video series.

“It was a really​​ interesting and ambitious project and at the beginning, there were lots of unknowns,” Zoe said.

“Health Issues​​ Centre was commissioned by Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) to create a series of four videos on topics relating to My Aged Care. These included getting access to My Aged care, discussing sensitive issues, ensuring people are getting the support they need and also advance care planning.”

Being authentic

Zoe said the team worked with the Victorian Committee for Aboriginal Aged Care and Disability (VCAACD) to develop the ideas, create the scripts and make sure the language reflected that spoken by the Victorian Aboriginal community.

“It was important for the community actors that they could modify the actions and lines to make sure they felt authentic,” Zoe said.

“We worked with VACCHO to ensure the appropriate messaging and acknowledgements were included in the edited versions of the videos.

“One of the highlights of working with the Aboriginal community was the sense of humour, passion, can-do attitude and sharing cultural stories – it was really special.

“The other highlight was being part of bringing this idea to fruition. The community had this idea but nobody was really sure they could do it. To be able to facilitate that process so we could make these videos that the community was so proud of and could relate to was a real achievement.”

The video series was such a success that a further four videos were commissioned following the completion of the initial set. These were launched in November and have since been taken up by the Aboriginal Controlled Health Organisations and community groups across Victoria.

View the full video series below.

Getting what you need

Advance care planning

Accessing aged care supports

Making a complaint

Calling My Aged Care

Asking for Help

Reablement

Assessment and sensitive conversations