Australia has one of the most diverse Muslim diasporas in the world – understanding their unique needs and traditions is key to providing culturally appropriate aged care.
Holding parents and grandparents in the highest esteem, Islam teaches honour and respect for older people and calls on people to look after older members of their families and communities.
Islam does not consider seniors as burdens on society, but rather recognises their contributions to society and seeks to repay them by acknowledging their special status. The process of ageing itself is considered a blessing, a time for inner growth and introspection on the journey back to spiritual purity.
According to the 2021 Census, over 800,000 people in Australia identify as Muslim. Australia’s Muslim diaspora is one of the most diverse in the world, representing numerous nationalities, cultures, languages and traditions.
Older Muslims have many things in common with older people from other backgrounds and faiths. Apart from sharing similar experiences of migration, many share traumas caused by war, displacement and persecution.
These hardships, alongside issues such as limited English proficiency, lack of digital literacy and challenges navigating Australian social systems, can cause older people to become more vulnerable and dependent on their family members.
The culture of respect and dignity for older people practised among Muslims can be difficult to maintain in Australia as younger generations adapt to and adopt different concepts, values and expectations.
First generation Muslims may find it hard to understand the shift in their children’s attitudes, and the second generation may not even understand the need for respect toward their elders.
These changing dynamics can sometimes cause friction within families and, in the worst-case scenarios, lead to elder abuse. Elder abuse takes various forms and although physical abuse does not appear to be common in Muslim communities, other forms of abuse such as neglect, social isolation, gender-driven abuse and financial abuse are becoming more common.
For new and emerging communities, an increasingly common form of abuse is “visa abuse,” which occurs when children who sponsor their parents threaten to cancel their visa and send them back home. Other types of abuse may involve stopping grandparents from seeing their grandchildren or threatening to send parents to an aged care facility.
Participants from the Al-Emaan Seniors group on a community outing at Wilson Botanic Park Berwick.
ECCV has been a staunch advocate for elder abuse prevention within multicultural communities for decades, and continues to provide education and support for people from migrant and refugee backgrounds to identify, respond to and prevent elder abuse within their communities.
Most recently, we ran a two-year project called Recognising and Respecting CALD Carers, which found that supporting and providing respite to carers was key to preventing elder abuse. Read more in our report here.
The road to ensuring older Muslims continue to age well begins with respecting their way of life, giving them freedom to practise their religious and cultural customs, building their capacity to know their rights and advocate for themselves, and above all, fostering a sense of belonging and empowering them to navigate and participate in broader society. These should be the building blocks for any aged care provider committed to delivering culturally inclusive services.
Palliative care and Islam
Through our community outreach work, ECCV has noted a rising number of concerns among Muslim community members about end-of-life care and its compatibility with Islam. The use of morphine and other opioid medications for pain management has been a major concern because if medications make people drowsy or dazed, this may interfere with the administration of last rites under Islamic law.
To address these concerns, ECCV collaborated with Palliative Care Victoria (PCV) and Palliative Care South East (PCSE) to deliver information sessions to Muslim community groups across Melbourne’s south-east.
Care was taken during these sessions to foster a culturally safe environment for people to share their fears and doubts. With the help of interpreters, facilitators explained the purpose of palliative care and the range of services available, and dispelled common misconceptions, such as the one about opioids.
Importantly, the sessions emphasised the importance of proactively raising issues by letting doctors, nurses and palliative care teams know about religious and cultural preferences and requirements.
It was heartening to hear from one participant, who shared that she used the information gained from one of the sessions to advocate for her dying husband.
“The doctors were keeping him unconscious,” she said. “I explained that we wanted him awake so we can read the Quran to him and say our proper goodbyes.
“The doctors agreed to reduce the amount of morphine they were giving him, and he was able to see all his family members and say goodbye to them.
“I am so grateful I had the opportunity to get the information I needed from your session. It was especially important to learn that I had a right to ask the doctors to manage my husband’s pain in a way that was respectful of our religious beliefs.”
Unfortunately, misconceptions about palliative care are common across many communities. That’s why Palliative Care Australia (PCA) published its ‘Palliative Care Myths’ factsheet and PCV partnered with Muslim Health Professionals Australia to develop the ‘Islamic Perspectives on End-of-Life Issues’ pamphlet. Additional resources for Arabic-speaking communities are available on the PCV website.
ECCV, PCV and PCSE are committed to working together to improve access to culturally responsive palliative care for Victorians from all backgrounds. We will continue to deliver information sessions to community groups throughout 2024.
This article was published in the
Autumn 2024 edition of Golden Years.