CARING
HOW LOCAL MOVES
CONTRIBUTE TO NATIONAL ACTION People power at all levels making a difference.
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It’s critically important that local providers find the time to approach their Federal Members. Unless we sing with one voice, unless we all raise the same issues which we are all experiencing, then the Federal Government will not be aware of the impact that inadequate funding is having on our communities.” Wise words of experience from Darren Midgley, CEO of Chaffey Aged Care in Merbein, Victoria. Last February, he gathered with a group of local aged care providers in the Sunraysia region, who have had their budgets increasingly squeezed over many years. “Like most other providers across the nation, particularly in regional areas, we are already as lean as we can be,” says Mr Midgley. “There is no cream, no fat to trim. We realised we all had the same issues around the inadequacy of Federal Government funding.” They detailed the critical issues and what the impact would be if they were no longer able to provide services. “For many of the providers and certainly for Chaffey, we are the largest employer in our town, so it’s not just an impact on care recipients, it’s an impact on communities,” Mr Midgley says. They carefully framed their approach and sought a meeting with local MP Dr Anne Webster, Federal Member for Mallee. They asked her to come to an aged care facility, rather than just meeting in her office. “Aged care is vital for our regional communities,” says Dr Webster. “We’ve got very small towns that still have a few beds in aged care facilities and people who have lived in that community all of their lives can transition to that care, which is really important.” After meeting residents, Ms Webster joined a roundtable of local aged care providers, accepted their submission and committed to take their concerns to Canberra. “Anne was very impressed with what all of us are doing as aged care providers in our communities,” says Mr Midgley. “She was fantastic, she really listened, she understood and she said she would raise these issues with Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck.”
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Chaffey Aged Care CEO Darren Midgley, aged care resident Kaye Turvey and Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster.
