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End neo-liberal experiment: gutting of bureaucracy led to vaccine and aged care failures
Lynelle Briggs, one of the aged care royal commissioners has recommended that the federal Health Department be the major “service delivery agency” of the reforms the aged care sector so desperately needs. In the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, Briggs states: “The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care will need to step up to the requirements of a major hands-on service delivery agency if it is to lead and guide the aged care sector effectively through the reforms we recommend.”
The department simply does not have the capacity to be a “hands-on service delivery agency”. Its expertise is outsourcing.
KPMG – A SIRs for home and community care settings
KPMG’s ‘A SIRs for home and community care settings co-design paper’ highlights that co-design is merely a buzz word in aged care.
I attended KPMG’s co-design focus groups on Serious Incident Response Scheme for home and community care. I have no words to describe just how bad it was. I don’t blame the facilitator – she appeared to be very inexperienced. I do however blame the federal department of health for commissioning this type of work from organisations with no expertise in genuine co-design of health and social services.
I wrote to the organiser to express my views of the focus group.
Hi [Name of facilitator]
I apologise if I was unduly critical of yesterday’s group discussion/consultation.
I am committed to genuine co-design of health and social services, including aged care services. Not surprisingly, it frustrates me when organisations appropriate language without any regard for the practice that underpins a community engagement methodology.
When I read KPMG’s “A SIRs for home and community care settings co-design paper”, I was concerned by the document’s lack of substance. Do the authors have any expertise in home care? I attach my feedback to this document.
I have also included Mary Ivec’s feedback below. Mary self-manages her mother’s Level 4 HCP.
I read some of Mary’s feedback during the meeting. The participant who said “That did not answer the question” was correct. It didn’t. But I felt it needed to be said.
Like Mary, I support relationship based regulation for older people who receive services in the home. I also agree with Mary’s comment about “natural circles of support” (i.e. family members, neighbours, church group members, friends, GP, pharmacy, podiatrist, medical specialist, dentist, and if no-one is around – community visitors)
Based on my research with over 100 older people and families who use home care, it is a mistake to model SIRS for home and community care on residential care – given the different capacity of residents in aged care homes and older people who receive support to live at home.
In my view, it is worth considering successful approaches to elder abuse in home and community. For example, have you reviewed New Zealand’s restorative approaches to elder abuse? Or Senior Rights’ successful model to support those who have experienced abuse in home and community?
To assist with yesterday’s meeting, I collected some wonderful ideas from recipients of HCPs and CHSP. However, the questions you asked provided no opportunity to share these ideas.
I had intended to thematically analyse this ‘consumer feedback’ but, after yesterday’s meeting, I see no point.
Political stunt silences the Royal Commission’s final report
Will government act on royal commission?
The royal commission report should give the Australian government a plan to fix aged care. Will they act on it?
Royal commission proves we need a new Aged Care Act
The royal commission enabled older people and families to tell their stories. A 105-year-old woman living in an aged care home was the oldest witness to give evidence. Hearing firsthand accounts has illustrated the failures in the aged care system.
The royal commission also released 20 research papers. This research will enable an evidence-based approach to aged care policy. For far too long, aged care policy has been based on opinion.
On February 26, the commissioners will release their final report. The counsel assisting’s 124 recommendations provide a glimmer of hope that the final report will outline a plan to fix aged care. But will the government act on the recommendations?
Aged care, quarantine: open and shut cases of federal responsibility but Morrison won’t step up to the plate
The federal government had no pandemic plan for aged care or quarantine. Scott Morrison not only failed to coordinate a national approach to quarantine and aged care but he and his colleagues sat on the sidelines providing unhelpful commentary. Rather than show leadership, the federal government chose to politicise the pandemic.
No Plan PM: how government’s lack of an aged care plan cost lives
Australia has one of the highest rates in the world of deaths in residential aged care as a proportion of total Covid-19 deaths. A recent Senate inquiry noted that deaths in aged care homes “account for 74.6% of all deaths from Covid-19 in Australia”.
Many of these deaths could have been prevented had the federal government prepared the aged sector for the pandemic. In the months since the first outbreak in aged care, the government has indulged in semantics and repeated attempts to shift the blame.
Aged care residents have endured brutal lockdowns. They deserve Christmas with their families
For around one third of residents in aged care homes, this will be their last Christmas. Yet many residents will not be able to celebrate with families and loved ones, even though Australia has transitioned to Covid-normal.
Preserve our beaches, not our beach boxes
Letter to The Age