WorldPride 2023: A service in focus

Last year, Central Highlands Rural Health reached out to us in advance of their Rainbow Tick accreditation to co-produce some materials to encourage people within their community who identify as LGBTQIA+ to feel safe, supported and welcome to share their story. We were greatly impressed by the commitment shown to listening to LGBTQIA+ voices and saw this demonstrated through social media channels, campaigns and community events.

When it came time to launch the Care Opinion WorldPride campaign, we knew Central Highlands Rural Health would have a lot to share about a unique approach to WorldPride and help encourage other services support inclusivity and diversity.

Allyship, and listening to and learning from LGBTQIA+ voices doesn't end with this campaign or the close of WorldPride. We encourage you to keep involved and seek out LGBTQIA+ voices every day.

Why do you feel it is important to encourage feedback from LGBTQIA+ voices?

We feel it is important to encourage feedback from the LGBTIQA+ community so that we can continually identify gaps and improve Central Highlands Rural Health (CHRH) services to ensure we continue to provide safe, affirming and inclusive environments for all genders and sexualities.

What does Central Highlands Rural Health do to encourage feedback from LGBTQIA+ voices?

Most notably we encourage feedback through our LGBTIQA+ Community Advisory Group which meets four times annually. We widely advertise to attract LGBTIQA+ Group members. The ideas and suggestions from this group is fed back to the CHRH Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Committee where it is reviewed and acted on as appropriate.

We have an LGBTIQA+ tab on our CHRH website that links to our CHRH General Feedback Form and Care Opinion page, where people who are LGBTIQA+ are specifically encouraged to share their personal stories.

This year we will also be collecting Feedback at our stand at the Chillout Festival in Daylesford through a short survey.

How does Central Highlands Rural Health celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community?

Each year we participate in the annual Chill Out festival held in Daylesford (the largest regional festival in Australia for the LGBTIQA+ community). And throughout the year we also support significant LGBTIQA+ dates, such as Wear it Purple Day and IDAHOBIT. For example, on IDAHOBIT day last year events were held at each or our sites to celebrate the LGBTIQA+ community and make a stand against discrimination. Staff were encouraged to wear rainbow colours, rainbow coloured food was available for staff and our local state MP provided us with a personalised video clip to recognise the importance of the work we do to provide inclusive and safe services; residents in our residential aged care facilities also participated in these events. We shared photos from our events on our social media pages to demonstrate our support to the wider community.

What have you got planned for WorldPride at Central Highlands Rural Health? Or are there any other PRIDE related celebrations you might be participating in?

Given our sites are located in rural and regional Victoria we are involved in the ChillOut Festival which happens on the long weekend in March in and around Daylesford making it more accessible for our service users. Each year staff voluntarily participate in the annual street parade and carry a CHRH banner to show our support. We will also host a CHRH information stand this year to promote our LGBTIQA+ inclusive services and of course encourage any feedback from locals who use our services or visitors to the area who use our services during ChillOut.

What advice can you give to a service who might be running their first PRIDE related campaign?

Ensure that LGBTIQA+ community members and/or staff lead and are meaningfully involved in any Pride related activities, including providing them with support, resources and a Champion from the organisation.

Have your say:

How did you celebrate WorldPride at your service? Or, what does your service do to make you feel safe, included and respected?

Have you experienced care as an LGBTQIA+ person? What made it good? Or, what could be improved?