Diverse Populations

Diverse Populations and COVID-19 resources

COVID-19 has been identified as a key issue for health and aged care. The Australian Government has adopted a whole of government emergency response which provides a framework for preparing for, responding to and managing COVID-19 in Australia.

Australia is a diverse nation with different religious, spirituality, sexuality, culture, and socio-economic backgrounds and personal experiences. We are spread across a vast continent with different geographic characteristics and we can have different medical and care needs.

Getting more information

Visit Department of Health and Aged Care

Visit the National Palliative Care projects including:

Advance Care Planning Australia palliAGED ELDAC TEL

COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Manual: For acute and non-acute healthcare settings, NSW Clinical Excellence Commission, 2021
Australia's COVID-19 vaccine national roll-out strategy
Management of people with covid-19 who are receiving palliative care (181kb pdf), a flowchart from Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce
Responding to noncommunicable diseases during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid review from WHO and UN Task Force, September 2020. An overview infographic (223kb pdf) is also available
Basic Psychosocial Skills A Guide for COVID-19 Responders (4.7MB pdf) - from United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee
Australian Government Department of Health - Coronavirus (COVID-19) resources for health professionals, including aged care providers, pathology providers and healthcare managers
There are suggestions that some groups may be more at risk if infected with COVID-19. This includes older people, those with chronic conditions and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Older people

Management of people with COVID-19 who are older and living with frailty and/or cognitive impairment (184kb pdf), flowchart from Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce
Caring for the wandering person during COVID-19 (1.07MB pdf), Agency for Clinical Innovation, NSW
Both palliAGED and ELDAC provide information on palliative care for older people to support equitable access and outcomes and embrace diverse characteristics and life experiences
Dementia Australia COVID-19 resources and factsheets

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Pandemic Response Toolkit (1.63MB pdf), Aboriginal Health & Medical Research Council
Australian Health sector Emergency Response Plan for COVID-19 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Populations
Mary G, Look after all your conditions - From Aboriginal Health Council Western Australia
A range of COVID-19 factsheets are available from NSW Health and the Centre for Aboriginal Health including:
- Keep Our Communities Healthy – Sorry business and funerals
- Keep Our Communities Healthy – Sorry Business and coronavirus
- Keep Our Communities Healthy – Protect Community and Elders
- Keep Our Communities Healthy – Hygiene
National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) provides Coronavirus (COVID-19) updates and information
Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response Toolkit for Member Services (1.19MB pdf)
HealthInfoNet, Coronavirus (COVID-19) recordings in Aboriginal languages

Culturally and Linguistically diverse (CALD) groups

Translated information about COVID-19 - other languages. NEW
Maridulu Budyari Gumal SPHERE – multilingual fact sheets with medical advice and instructions during COVID-19 for people with Arthritis, Asthma, Cardiovascular Health, Diabetes and Stroke
Telehealth consultations with patients requiring an interpreter
SBS community language portal for COVID-19 information
A range of factsheets about COVID-19 in multiple community languages
The Centre for Cultural Diversity has a range of multilingual resources
The Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) provide updated CALD resources for COVID-19

Homelessness

Rapid review of Homelessness and COVID-19 (444kb pdf), NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation

LGBTI community

Making Sense of COVID19 – for LGBTIQ and HIV Communities, from Australian Federation of AIDS communities
From the National LGBTI Health Alliance there is the COVID-19 Knowledge Hub and Statement

People with disability

Coronavirus (COVID-19) hospital companion for people with disability, Department of Health
Identifying a COVID-19 Outbreak In a Residential Facility and What to do Next - Information for Disability support providers (40kb pdf), from NSW Health
Management and operational plan for people with disability - Australian government

People in places of detention

Preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention (2020) from WHO.

Communication skills for the COVID vaccine - VitalTalk
Communication Strategies for Providing Palliative Care via Telemedicine, Fast Fact from PCNOW
Vital Talk Communication Skills for Bridging Inequity (75kb pdf)
Translated COVID-19 resources from the Department of Health
COVID-19 Communication - visual images to support effective communication (3.92MB pdf)
VitalTalk has developed a new resource COVID-19 communication skills: a VitalTalk open source primer as well as a series of four videos on difficult COVID conversations
European Association for Palliative Care – a resource collection Coronavirus and the palliative care response including care and communication tips.

Getting more information

You can call the National Coronavirus (COVID-19) Health Information Line on 1800 020 080. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you require translating or interpreting services, call 131 450.

There is also a phone number of each state or territory public health agency. To find out about local restictions put in place as part of the response to COVID-19 visit the Health Direct Restriction Checker.

Visit the following websites:

Department of Health and Aged Care

Palliative Care Australia

Advance Care Planning Australia

Last updated 19 August 2021