Why is the COVID 65+ project important?
Although the World Health Organisation has declared COVID-19 over as a global health emergency, COVID-19 still poses as a risk to Australians, especially older migrant and refugee populations.
The COVID 65+ project aimed to increase community immunity and vaccination participation through in-language health education and information. Through this project, we reached over 1,200 migrant and refugee women aged over 65 years old with up-to-date, accurate and tailored information and resources about COVID-19. Research was also undertaken to understand the experiences of older migrant and refugee women during the pandemic to inform future planning and response strategies.
Community Insights: COVID-19 response and recovery for older migrant and refugee women
The aim of the Community Insights: COVID-19 response and recovery for older migrant and refugee women resource is to contribute to the evidence base on culturally appropriate pandemic response and recovery. It provides recommendations to the Australian Government and service providers to develop future public health programs and policies that meet the needs of migrant and refugee women aged over 65 years.
This resource utilises case studies and narrative storytelling as a method of communicating our findings of in-depth interviews which were conducted by MCWH’s Research, Advocacy and Policy team and Health Education team throughout 2023 – 2024.
How will the COVID 65+ project will make a difference?
COVID-19 recovery and future pandemic preparedness must be culturally and linguistically responsive to the needs of migrant and refugee women across Australia and gender diverse people across Australia.
Government policy makers and support agencies need to learn from the shortcomings of COVID-19 pandemic responses and ensure migrant and refugee communities, in particular older women, are not left behind in future pandemic preparedness, response and recovery efforts.
The COVID 65+ project ran from August 2023 to June 2024 and was funded by the Victorian Department of Health.