Who Matters is committed to fostering equitable, inclusive, and culturally responsive service delivery. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles are embedded across governance, professional practice, and client engagement processes to ensure services are safe, respectful, and accessible to all individuals.
1. Governance and Ethical Framework
As a sole practitioner service, governance is guided by:
- Adherence to relevant professional ethical codes and practice standards
- Ongoing professional development in culturally responsive and trauma-informed practice
- Regular reflective supervision to examine bias, power dynamics, and systemic influences in clinical work
- Commitment to continuous review of policies to ensure alignment with national human rights and anti-discrimination frameworks
Practice is informed by an awareness of structural inequality, gendered violence dynamics, and intersectionality.
2. Cultural Safety and First Nations Responsiveness
Who Matters acknowledges the unique cultural identities, histories, and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Commitments include:
- Respecting cultural authority, kinship systems, and community contexts
- Adopting a culturally humble and learning-oriented stance
- Recognising the impact of intergenerational trauma and systemic disadvantage
- Supporting referrals to culturally specific services where appropriate
- Ensuring practice does not perpetuate deficit-based narratives
Cultural safety is approached as an ongoing responsibility rather than a fixed competency.
3. Inclusion of LGBTIQA+ Communities
Services are inclusive of people of diverse sexualities, genders, and relationship structures.
This includes:
- Use of inclusive language in documentation and sessions
- Respect for affirmed names and pronouns
- Recognition of diverse family and relationship configurations
- Awareness of minority stress and discrimination impacts
- Avoidance of heteronormative assumptions in behaviour change work
Clients are supported without judgement regarding identity.
4. Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities
Who Matters recognises the additional barriers faced by individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Practice considerations include:
- Sensitivity to cultural norms regarding gender roles, authority, and help-seeking
- Use of plain language to enhance accessibility
- Referral to interpreters or culturally specific services where appropriate
- Avoiding cultural stereotyping while remaining aware of structural disadvantage
5. Accessibility for People with Disability
Commitments include:
- Flexible appointment delivery (e.g., telehealth options)
- Adjustments to communication style as needed
- Clear and structured session frameworks
- Respect for neurodiversity
- Willingness to collaborate with support networks (with consent)
Reasonable adjustments are made to reduce participation barriers.
6. Equity in Service Delivery
Who Matters recognises that equality does not always produce fairness. Equity-informed practice includes:
- Transparent fee structures
- Clear boundaries and expectations
- Non-discriminatory service access
- Awareness of power dynamics within therapeutic relationships
- Encouraging client voice and autonomy
Feedback mechanisms are in place to ensure clients can safely raise concerns regarding inclusivity or safety.
7. Ongoing Commitment
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are treated as active, evolving commitments rather than static policies. Continuous learning, reflective practice, and responsiveness to client feedback underpin service integrity.
Who Matters is committed to creating a service environment where all individuals are treated with dignity, respect, and fairness, consistent with national commitments to human rights and social justice.