Diversity and Inclusion
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Northern Health
At Northern Health, we are committed to building a workplace that mirrors the rich diversity of the communities we serve. Our vision is to foster an environment where every individual feels welcomed, valued and empowered to thrive.
We strive to ensure all staff experience a sense of belonging, connection and respect. This includes providing equal access to employment opportunities and supporting full participation in the workplace. By attracting and retaining a diverse workforce, we aim to enable meaningful and successful careers for all
We focus specifically on five groups who are under-represented in healthcare participation and over-represented in clinical risk:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
- Disability
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Asexual and other sexually or gender diverse (LGBTIQA+)
- Culturally and Linguistically Diverse People (CALD)
- Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Celebrating our equity, diversity and inclusion journey
At Northern Health our Diversity & Inclusion journey began in 2018. Since then we have successfully increased the diversity of our workforce and are working towards ensuring a safe and inclusive workplace.
Some key achievements:
- Development of mandatory diversity awareness training for all staff
- Successfully held Refugee and Asylum Seeker study days for Northern Health staff and members of the community
- Recruitment of a Refugee Health Navigation Officer
- Celebrated International Day of Persons with a Disability
- Disability Campus audits
- Reinstallation of the undercover disabled car spaces at NCHER
- Provided space for and co-creation of ideas and support for LGBTIQ+ initiatives
- In collaboration with DPV Health, Nexus Health Care and Hume-Whittlesea PCP participated in the 2020 Pride march
- Launched the Northern Health Reconciliation Action Plan
- Established Aboriginal gardens at the Northern Health Epping campus
- Celebrated IDAHOBIT Day
- Formed strong partnerships with local agencies (i.e. DPV health, PCP, AMES, Whittlesea Council, Foundation House)
- Implementation of cultural leave policies to accommodate diverse cultural obligations.
- Promotion of significant cultural events across the organisation.
- Updated procedures to provide meals that meet cultural dietary requirements.
- Establishment of sacred spaces at three Northern Health sites for spiritual and cultural practices.
- Increased visibility of translated health resources via the Health Translations website
- Collaborated with Whittlesea Council to share refugee resources and integrated state-wide and regional refugee settlement data for informed planning and engagement.
- Produced resources in first refugee languages to enhance accessibility, and held several community engagement events, including Refugee Week celebrations.
- Acute medical, surgical and maternity services;
- Sub-acute, palliative care and aged care; and
- Specialist clinics and community-based services.
- Embedded a refugee identifier in NH patient experience surveys and IPM for specific population data collection.
- Developed a Trauma-Informed Care online module, and hosted an Annual Study Day to enhance staff competencies, both now available on NH’s Learning Management System
- Implementation of sex and gender separation in iPM, a critical step toward enhancing support for and promoting inclusivity among our intersex and gender-diverse communities.
- Annual participation in the annual Midsumma Pride March
- Delivered inaugural Aboriginal Health Study Day
