Time to honour our aged care heroes

Aged care superheroes across Australia are receiving their certifcates as fnalists in ACCPA’s excellence awards, with just two weeks to go before Aged Care Employee Day.

This year Aged Care Employee Day falls on Wednesday 7 August, the sixth time we have celebrated our thousands of aged care workers across Australia.

“Aged Care Employee Day is a chance to say a massive ‘thanks for caring’ to our dedicated and compassionate aged care superheroes, who look after our older loved ones in residential care, home and community care, retirement living and seniors housing,”

ACCPA CEO Tom Symondson said.

“This important date reminds us of the caring and professional work our aged care staff perform every day. From managers to personal carers, nurses, kitchen and laundry staff, diversion therapy staff, allied health professionals, administrators, gardeners or volunteers they have all worked above and beyond the call of duty to keep our older

Australians cared for, safe and thriving.”

“This year, we’re delighted our inaugural ACCPA Excellence Awards provides another opportunity to thank these everyday heroes for their dedication and service.”

From highlighting the excellent teamwork of aged care workers in a bushfre evacuation to celebrating the dedication of an aged care volunteers, the 48 ACCPA Excellence Awards fnalists have been selected from over 460 nominations received as part of ACCPA’s industry recognition program, ‘You are ACE!’.

ACCPA managers have been visiting aged care teams across Australia presenting fnalists with their certifcates.

Among the Excellence Awards fnalists is the Lifestyle and Leisure team at May Shaw Health Centre in Swansea, Tasmania, who have been recognised for creating a viral video.

Their Christmas Grinch skit started as a way to engage residents and families and became the talk of the town and beyond, quickly amassing 19,000 views, May Shaw Health Centre Chief Executive Fiona Onslow-Agnew said.

“The whole community became involved with much speculation about who the Grinch was, and the residents just loved it and enjoyed it, and their families were engaged as well,” Ms OnslowAgnew said.

The awards have highlighted the extraordinary dedication of retired aged care nurse Cathy Buick, from Coolibah Care in Western Australia, who was nominated in ‘You are ACE!’ after 54 years of caring.

“Nursing for me has been a fantastic journey with lots of challenges along the way. I have loved every minute.

Caring for people from babies to aged care and everyone in between has been so rewarding,” she said.

Cathy feels deeply privileged to have served as a nurse. She loved caring for older people at Coolibah Care in Mandurah for the past 17 years.

“All my life nursing has been a great passion for me, and I would defnitely encourage people to go into nursing - I loved it.”

“Coolibah gave me a lot of choices to do things. It was a fantastic place to work. I’ve got great friends there.”

ACCPA CEO Tom Symondson will be visiting Victorian-based members in Bendigo on 7 August.

Visit You are ACE! for more inspirational stories about Australia’s amazing aged and community care superheroes.