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Juniper Guwardi Ngadu (a place to call home) is a twenty-four-bed residential aged care home on Bunuba Country in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The service operates within Juniper’s not-for-profit network and works closely with older people, community organisations, and local health services. Residents come from five language groups, creating a culturally diverse environment. Juniper highlights strong Indigenous leadership, person-centred care, relationship-based practice, and workforce development as important features in a remote setting.
Watch the Juniper website video
Care delivery requires a stable workforce which can be difficult to maintain in a remote location. Juniper highlights the role of strong Indigenous leadership, two-way cultural learning, and the need for consistent staff, to enable the effective delivery person-centred care in remote communities. It also shows that barriers such as workforce shortages, isolation, housing, and staff burnout need ongoing attention alongside additional practical support. Juniper is responding to these issues by building on-site staff accommodation, in partnership with Bunuba Operations Aboriginal Corporation, providing workers with suitable accommodation, in a region with shortages in housing.
Relationships form the foundation of care delivery, with staff taking time to obtain and learn each individual’s story, family and cultural background. This relationship-based approach helps to build trust while supporting healing from intergenerational trauma experienced by Aboriginal residents. Organisational cultural education is both structured and ongoing, which includes new staff learning about both First Nations and migrant worker cultures, which strengthens empathy, communication and mutual respect. Alongside this, daily yarning-circle handovers between staff provides space for open conversations and culturally ground learning and knowledge sharing. Person-centred care is also central to Juniper’s care model where care plans are developed with the individual, reflecting their voice and preferences, enabling individual identity and autonomy related to choice.
Implementation supports that enabled the person-centred and worker-oriented approach included strong indigenous leadership, with a First Nations Manager based on Country for twenty years, embedding trusted relationships with local community and health organisations. Person-centred care in the form of co-design in care planning with individuals and relation-based cultural learning by workers contributed to cross cultural understanding and safety.
Juniper’s model of care was supported by the way services were designed and delivered. Culturally safe care depended on a stable and consistent workforce and building local housing was a solution. The organisation used ongoing cultural learning to build shared understanding between different types of workers and residents. Staff also took the time to understand individual residents’ life history and cultural backgrounds, ensuing care was delivered in a person-centred way.
Culturally safe models of care, such as Juniper, need to involve all stakeholders and use culture as a foundation for shared understanding across workers, residents and the wider care environment. Strong Indigenous leadership with connection to local communities and services also ensures that services respond to local needs and individual perspectives. Supporting staff and workforce continuity in remote locations requires organisations to respond flexibly to the needs of a mixed workforce and to provide suitable accommodation in rural settings.
This evidence-based example has been based on an interview with Belinda Storer at Juniper Guwardi Ngadu to fit ARIIA’s case study format. For full detail and context, refer to the interviewee in the link provided.