CEO’s Column

HOLDING THE GOVERNMENT TO ACCOUNT ON AGED CARE REFORM

COVID-19, WORKFORCE AND THE ‘FIVE PILLARS’ WILL BE A KEY FOCUS IN 2022

Sean Rooney Chief Executive Officer Leading Age Services Australia

As we continue learning what living with COVID-19 is like we are winding down, gratefully I suspect, to a summer holiday season which we hope will more closely resemble the ones we used to have pre-pandemic.

Families, friends and loved ones will be getting together over Christmas and the holidays—many for the first time in a long while. This includes visiting older, frail relatives who are supported at home or who live in residential aged care. It’s nearly two years since the COVID-19 virus first hit our shores and we reflect on some of the terrible and tragic events that took place as the virus spread. As we take stock, we also take the opportunity to look at what we have learned.

Winter 2020 was an awful time especially for residential aged care with serious COVID-19 outbreaks first in Sydney and then Melbourne.

Twelve months later and we were better prepared to protect our vulnerable older people and our staff when the infection spread once again.

A key lesson learned is that we must continue to examine our processes in managing COVID-19 in consultation with health authorities and the scientific and medical experts.

After nearly two years, it is a given that the pandemic is constantly evolving and so too must our approaches to dealing with it. In a webinar scheduled for 12pm AEDT on Thursday 16 December, we will explore lessons learned by residential aged care providers who have had DELTA variant outbreaks. Leading Age Services Australia’s (LASA’s) tireless advocacy played a key role in resolving the presenting issues in the vaccination programs for aged care residents and staff.

With the start of a booster vaccination program for older Australians now underway, we can look to the future and ask what will 2022 hold for aged care and older Australians?

One thing we can be certain of is that COVID-19 is likely to still be with us in some form, which means we need to remain vigilant.

A key issue our Planning for living with COVID paper notes is the ever-present and worsening problems due to aged care workforce supply. LASA has teamed with other aged care provider peak bodies under the banner of the Australian Aged Care Collaboration (AACC) to press the Federal Government to work with the industry to urgently address workforce shortages, including creating a sector-specific skilled migration program.

Workforce pressures were already a constant before the outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia but the situation is now an unfolding crisis.

The AACC approached the Government in early November calling for a relaxation of border closures and the resumption of skilled migration as a matter of urgency.

We are also pressing the case for support for aged care providers to pay the workforce a competitive wage so that we can attract more staff to a career in aged care, and to develop career pathways through VET training programs

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from secondary school through to enrolled nurses training to become registered nurses.

The AACC will continue to pursue key aged care reforms identified by the Aged Care Royal Commission, some of which were accepted by the Government.

Our pursuit of meaningful reform will not let up as we keep the Government in check on its May Budget commitment to ‘five pillars’ of reform in aged care over five years.

We plan to report regularly on the progress of the reforms to aged care to keep the community informed and hold the Government to account.

LASA and fellow peak bodies UnitingCare Australia and Anglicare Australia expressed concern in August over the Government’s lack of consultation on critical aged care reforms emerging from the announcement in May.

In correspondence to Ministers Hunt and Colbeck, and the Prime Minister, we made the point that to have successful and significant reforms, the Government must work in a meaningful way with the people who have to implement the changes. The failure to appropriately engage will result in confusion and misinformation which will slow the progress towards realising better outcomes for older Australians.

The engagement so far during the latter half of 2021 has left the age services industry significantly concerned that the oncein-a-generation opportunity to fix our broken aged care system will fail to translate into tangible outcomes.

This is likely to come into sharp focus as we approach the federal election which is expected before the end of May 2022.

Finally, as we head towards the holidays I urge you all, especially those of you who have spent months in lockdown, to do your best to recharge and relax, take some time for yourself before tackling the year ahead.

I’d like to thank the LASA Board for their support and encouragement during what has been a challenging year and our LASA Executive Management Team and all LASA staff for their hard work.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and relaxing summer break. ■

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