Autumn / Winter 2016
About Life
At Life Care, we view aged care differently, and so we are challenging the conventional way people think about and deliver aged care. We are planning on turning the traditional aged care model on its head by developing a service model that ensures respect for client preferences, promotes client and family empowerment, and takes a more comprehensive and holistic approach to overall wellbeing, rather than just a clinical approach.
About Life Autumn / Winter 2016
Mission Our purpose is to partner with people to embrace life and ‘Live Every Day’. Vision Life Care is an innovative provider of quality services to the ageing. We are recognised as a preferred option of choice for active ageing and an employer of choice for staff. This is achieved by an outstanding team working in a flexible and integrated approach with volunteers and partners.
WHAT’S INSIDE... Welcome from our CEO Allen Candy The Adelaide Crows and Life Care We fly as One!
Values
Dementia – leading the way
Integrity · Respect Innovation · Excellence Teamwork
‘Life Care Way’ Workshops Welcome to our Team Staff Awards Night Volunteers are a special group of people The Show comes to Reynella Sausages sizzle at Norman House George and Anne Life Care Active - getting you back on your feet
Welcome from our CEO 2016 promises to Our Vision for the Future be a pivotal year for In March 2011, the Life Care Life Care as we continue Board formally adopted the current 2011-2016 Strategic to challenge ourselves to be a service partner which Plan, which was in turn formally reviewed and updated in responds promptly to a June 2013. client’s needs and choices. Already in 2016, we have undertaken the first tranche of dementia training with the Dementia Services Development Centre, which is part of the University of Stirling (Scotland) and we have conducted the 5th annual Life Care Way Workshops across all of our services. Both of these initiatives and the follow up training on the ‘Impacts of Ageing and Dementia,’ are evidence of Life Care’s commitment to developing and supporting our staff and their capacity to truly make a positive differences in our clients’ lives.
With its expiry date looming and with the significant reform and the resulting changes which have swept the Aged Care Sector especially over the last three years, both the Board and Senior Management are committed to developing a new five year Strategic Plan that progresses Life Care’s journey to becoming one of the State’s premier Aged Care operators. Late last year, Senior Management conducted a series of workshops designed to foster ownership and understanding of our strategic intent and direction.
The outcomes of these workshops have been worked on by the Management Executive and were presented to the Board who in turn have endorsed the framework for the 2016-2021 Strategic Plan.
The seven Strategic Pillars of our 2016-2021 Framework are: · · · · · · ·
Our People Innovation and Quality Master Plan and Environment Strategy and Planning Leadership Customer and Market Focus Knowledge and Information
With a joint Board and Management Planning Day scheduled for April 2016, it is anticipated that the new Strategic Plan will be finalised and adopted by the Board at the upcoming May Board Meeting. The new Strategic Plan which will reflect a truly collaborative engagement between the Board and Senior Management, is unlikely to represent a significant diversion from our current direction, but rather a refinement as we look to position Life Care for the future in a rapidly changing environment.
Welcome from our CEO Masterplan Developments Our ambitious Master Plan was developed and adopted by the Board over two years ago. The Master Plan was designed to ensure that our property portfolio was redeveloped to support our strategic direction and allow us to deliver our ‘Live Every Day’ experience to all our clients. In line with the review and extension of the Life Care Strategic Plan, Senior Management and our consulting team are reviewing and updating our Master Plan to ensure full alignment with the 2016-2021 Strategic Plan. This process has seen us assessing updated market research, international best practice, changed planning regulations and client feedback to produce an updated vision for all of Life Care’s sites. Through the process management have reassessed the priority and the order in which we fulfil our commitment to redevelop our sites and achieve our strategic direction.
Alongside the review of our overall Master Plan, the first project arising from it, which is the redevelopment of Roselin Court, remains on track. The decanting of the existing facility was completed in midFebruary 2016 and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who were impacted during this time, for their patience and understanding. The project will now move to the construction phase with part of the existing building earmarked for demolition in May 2016 and construction of the new facility to commence in June 2016. Construction is expected to take 12 months and with a commissioning period of three months, it is expected that the new facility will be open and operating by October 2017. I look forward to keeping you informed of our progress through ‘About Life’ over the next 18 months.
The Adelaide Crows and Life Care – We Fly as One!
Life Care is again proud to be a sponsor of The Adelaide Football club. We have enjoyed a long and successful relationship with The Crows and love having players interacting with our clients when they visit our various residential locations throughout the year. Like the Adelaide Football Club, Life Care believes in bringing people together in positive and thriving communities. It’s one of the ways we view aged care differently as we encourage our ‘Live Every Day’ message in everything we do! As part of our partnership this year, look out for our Life Care Buggies which will be at every Crows Home Game. They will be cruising around the Oval, offering to pick up fans and give them a lift to the front gate! It’s our way to celebrate each Crows match and to get out amongst the fans and help them to get to the game in comfort.
If you hop on board one of the Life Care Buggies, you will see the friendly drivers wearing our hand made Life Care footy scarves, which have been happily made by our Glenrose Knitting Group and our Community group Crafty Chats. Christine, Nesta and Rae regularly get together with other members of the Glenrose group to catch up, knit and have a laugh. When they are not knitting footy scarves, they love making baby clothes, rugs or whatever is required and often donate their handiwork to local charities. Life Care looks forward to another great year with the Crows, and we hope to see you on one of our Buggies soon!
Dementia – leading the way Life Care recognises that a large proportion of the people we deliver services to may have some form of dementia. We do not see this as a Government policy to be solved, but as an opportunity to provide each person with ‘Live Every Day’ experiences to enhance their quality of life and add meaning and purpose. Life Care is committed to providing excellence in dementia services in South Australia and as part of this commitment, we have formed a partnership with The Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) which is part of the Department of Social Sciences at Stirling University in the United Kingdom. Shirley Law, Head of Learning & Development at DSDC, has spent two weeks with some of our key staff, providing training in the following programs: ‘The Impact of Ageing and Dementia’ This is a 4-hour workshop that will be delivered to all staff as part of Life Care’s annual training schedule. It will also be delivered to all volunteers later in the year.
‘Dementia in the Community’ Six staff have been trained to provide this 4-hour program to carers looking after someone in the community with dementia. The program will also be delivered to families whose loved one has dementia and is currently staying at one of our residential locations. The aim is to support families to understand what dementia is and how they can best support their loved one. ‘Best Practice in Dementia Care’ Two staff from each service have been trained to be facilitators of this program and they will each take 8 of their colleagues through the 6 modules over 6 months. The facilitators are all carers, ENs or Community Coordinators and work with people with dementia on a daily basis. Their aim is to encourage people they work with to think about how they respond to someone with dementia and focus on a person-centered approach. We already do a fairly good job at managing this, but we are constantly asking ourselves how we can improve the way we give each client the best possible quality of life while they are living with dementia.
Life Care’s commitment to the design and delivery of dementia care services continues to remain a focus and priority as we acknowledge this important aspect of the lives of ageing South Australians.
What is Dementia? Dementia is the term used to describe the symptoms of a large group of illnesses which cause a progressive decline in a person’s functioning, which can include loss of memory, intellect, rationality, social skills and physical functioning. There are many types of dementia including the most commonly known, Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia is not a normal part of ageing and can happen to anyone, but it is more common after the age of 65. (Alzheimer’s Australia)
The Facts Each week, 1,800 new cases of dementia are diagnosed in Australia. That is about 1 person every 6 minutes. 3 in 10 people over the age of 85 and almost 1 in 10 over the age of 65 have dementia. An estimated 1.2 million people are involved in the care of a person living with dementia. There are 353,800 Australians living with dementia and this number is expected to increase to 400,00 in less than 5 years. Dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia and there is no cure. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2012) Dementia in Australia)
Training the trainers: Shirley Law training Life Care staff to present ‘The Impact of Ageing and Dementia’ workshop
‘Life Care Way’ Workshops
This year we are celebrating 5 years of our ‘Life Care Way’ workshops. These workshops are our commitment to developing and supporting our staff and over the past 5 years, we have developed excellent staff engagement and provided solid foundations for building a strong vibrant culture. This year we are continuing to build on the learnings from past workshops with a focus on sharing our vision for the next 5 years and providing an understanding of how each staff member will contribute to achieving that vision. The workshops reinforce Life Care’s Service Model and the key tools that have been developed with an emphasis on everyone working together as a team – in essence, this is ‘The Life Care Way.’ Managers of each of our services explain the changes that will be happening at their location over the next six months, and how each staff member can participate and contribute as part of those changes. As part of the ‘Life Care Way’ Workshops, staff are being introduced on how to use creative thinking tools, using Edward de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats, to workshop several key initiatives that will be implemented over the next 6 months. Like all previous ‘Life Care Way’ Programs, the workshops are designed to combine fun with learning and at the same time building ownership, trust and engagement with our staff.
Welcome to our Team KEITH EVANS Life Care is pleased to welcome Professor Keith Evans to our Board. Keith has qualifications in psychiatric and general nursing, public sector management and psychology. He has over 25 years’ experience in senior leadership roles within the public sector in Australia and New Zealand in the fields of health policy, development and implementation and is a leading national and international advisor on public policy. Life Care is confident that the addition of Keith’s skills will be invaluable to the organisation.
ALLAN QUIRE With 25 years experience in the aged care sector, Allan Quire has joined the Life Care executive team, as our Director of Strategy. Before joining Life Care, Allan was the Assistant State Manager of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing and acting as the State Manager of the Department of Social Services. His main focus was to manage teams who were responsible for the Home Support and Home Packages programs and the planning, allocation, transfer and management of all Aged Care places in South Australia as the Chair of the Aged Care Planning and Allocations Committee. Allan’s role at Life Care involves liaison with Government regarding our developments, allocations and funding, as well as providing demographic and industry data and intelligence. Allan is also managing a project that is directed towards developing a better system for dealing with client feedback and complaints. Allan is married with two adult sons and a geriatric Jack Russell called Cooper. His favourite quote is “Love People… Use Things, not Vice Versa”
Our 2015 Life Care Staff Awards Night was held at the Stamford Grand Hotel, Glenelg and over 300 staff and guests came along, which was a wonderful sight.
Staff Awards Night The celebrations were two fold, as we celebrated Life Care’s 65th birthday along with the wonderful achievements of the Award recipients and nominees. It was great to see so many staff socialising and mingling with other staff from all parts of Life Care, sharing stories with one another, and learning more about other people and their roles within the organisation.
The Staff Awards are an opportunity to acknowledge and recognise staff who go above and beyond in delivering the high standard of care that Life Care is committed to delivering. There are several award categories, including Team of the Year, Leadership, Excellence in Customer Service and the Life Care Way Award which acknowledges staff who embrace the essence of how Life Care goes about its business.
Team of the Year · Winners Reynella Hotel Services Glenrose Court Admissions Team Aldinga Beach Court Minor Capital Works and Property Community Care (Life Care Active, Norman House, Life Care at Home) Customer Enquiries Roselin Court Catering
Leadership · Winner Debra Craggs - Norman House · Joint runners up Bill Hall - Chaplain and Aksika Krasaiyot - Parkrose Village
Customer Service Excellence · Joint Winners Adam Figg - Reynella Lodge and Sarah Miles - Aldinga Beach Court · Runner Up Emma Paynter - Corporate Services
Life Care Way · Winner Caroline Wright - Parkrose Village · Joint Runners Up Lara Hough - Corporate Services & Catherine Cocks - Life Care Active
We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill
Volunteers are a special group of people At Life Care, our volunteers are an integral part of how we deliver our services to provide opportunities for our clients to get out and about, to experience different things, to keep active and share time with people - a true reflection of how to ‘Live Every Day’
Volunteers are a special group of people who willingly give their time to help others.
They tell us that whilst they are helping others, they too gain so much from the act of volunteering. It’s a way to meet new people and form friendships along the way. There are new skills to learn as well as sharing some life skills with others. The contribution that all of our volunteers make at Life Care, is greatly appreciated by our clients, their families and our staff. We are currently looking for more volunteers at Life Care. We work hard to match volunteer skills, expertise and interests with our clients, so that a common
understanding and bond can develop, whether this is working as part of a group activity, or spending time with an individual. Our volunteers become involved in a range of activities, including sing alongs, cooking classes, dancing lessons, gardening programs, Men’s Sheds, choir, social excursions, reading, playing cards and walking groups. If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a volunteer, we’d love to hear from you. All the details are on our website, including a registration form.
September is traditionally Royal Show time in Adelaide, but as many of our clients don’t go to this big event, we thought we’d bring the Show to Reynella!
The Show comes to Reynella
Show Day was on 2 September and our staff and volunteers helped our Lifestyle Team to pull the event together. Everyone started by collecting their ‘Show Bag’ which they took with them as they followed the “yellow hands” around the site. At each ‘yellow hand’ location, clients could either look at something or participate in an activity and then collect an item for their Show Bag.
We had the “Dairy Pavilion” where clients could enjoy an ice-cream. Next was “Side Show Alley” where everyone played 3 games (fishing, Clown’s Mouth and ball throwing). Next was the “Petting Zoo” with a snake, baby possum, dogs and several chooks, and of course, a Show is not complete, without the CWA hall where afternoon tea with scones and jam was served! Our many suppliers generously donated items for the Show Bags, and a great day was had by all! So much so, we are sure it will become a regular feature on our calendar!
Great activities like this are living proof of Life Care’s commitment to ‘Live Every Day’ and to get the most out of each day.
Sausages sizzle at Norman House
Our Side By Side group at Norman House recently had an opportunity to be involved in the Bunnings Mile End Community BBQ fundraiser program. Staff, volunteers and the Side By Side team successfully served about 150kg of sausages, 90kg of onions and 150 loaves of bread running the Thursday BBQ at the store. This project has given those in our Side By Side program the opportunity to be part of a community project but has had the added benefit of contributing funds to our own community. All our BBQ efforts have resulted in the addition of a flat screen TV which helps our visually impaired guests greatly. We were also able to install outdoor blinds onto our gazebo to protect guests from the Eastern sun, and give the gazebo a longer life. The newly fitted gazebo has now become a popular outdoor ‘room’ which our guests love using for a range of activities.
George and Anne
We are always keen to find ways to get the most out of each day and to offer our clients the choice to enjoy their time with us on a number of levels. One of the most engaging stories is about George and Anne. George belongs to our Lifestyle Coordinator at Parkrose, Wendy Charleson, and Anne is one of our clients. Each day, George arrives with Wendy, and as she is opening up her office, he sits looking out at the courtyard, waiting for Anne. So Wendy tells George to ‘find Anne’ and off he goes. He makes his way to Anne’s room and cries at her door to let her know he has arrived. George and Anne then spend the day together – they go for walks, visit out clients at Parkrose, and they are only apart, when Anne goes off to have lunch – apparently George is not very happy with this arrangement. He then returns to her room for another walk, some ball play, followed by a quick afternoon nap together. Wendy picks George up from Anne at the end of the day, and Anne has to carry George out to the car, otherwise he just lays on the floor and won’t walk. This delightful connection between George and Anne is wonderful to see and is encouraged by Life Care as the joy and companionship George brings to Anne and all of our clients at Parkrose is evident.
Life Care Active Getting you back on your feet Life Care Active works collaboratively with a full range of experienced, multi-disciplinary specialists to help achieve health, wellbeing and fitness goals. Our on-site allied health professionals work closely with our fitness professionals, to ensure that your treatment complements your fitness or movement program with a holistic approach. This means that we can help take care of your health and fitness needs in a single location. A new Life Care Active initiative focusses on rehabilitation after an injury or surgery. We offer a multidisciplinary program to support hip and knee replacement surgery.
Our approach includes tailored exercise programs, allied health assessments, reviews and support before, during and after the joint replacement process.
We all know how important it is to keep active as you age and this is even more vital after surgery.
Our new rehabilitation program Ideally the program starts 8-12 is a great initiative that supports weeks before surgery and Life Care’s commitment to continues for about the same working closely with clients to period of time after your surgery. ensure they have the services they need, when they need them, We help your body to get ready for to encourage independence and surgery, then we provide at home keeping active. support when you are recovering from your operation. This recovery phase, includes a health call from your physiotherapist, 1:1 visits with a personal trainer and if needed, an assessment from our occupational therapist. Then we work with you to get you back on your feet and moving again, with supported exercise classes, overseen by a physiotherapist.
Life Care Active Life Care at Home Respite Independent Living Residential Living
Would you like more information about Life Care or to receive your own copy of About Life? Contact us Call 08 8239 9800 Email enquire@lifecare.org.au www.lifecare.org.au
About Life magazine is the official publication of the Churches of Christ Life Care Inc. Corporate Services 263 Melbourne Street North Adelaide SA 5006