Author: Jesse

In Case You Missed It – Below are links to recent articles on Aged Care and Healthcare that may be of interest:

Furious family lash out over elderly mum’s treatment during Earle Haven crisis

Inquiry to look into unexpected closure of facility

Aged care residents turned into ‘zombies’ on antipsychotics for more than 200 days at a time

Aged care worker reveals brutal reality of the job in viral post

Nursing home patient found dead in neighbour’s pool, sparking investigation

What happens when aged care operators go broke

‘We are damning ourselves’: Big problem with the way Australia treats its elderly population

Schoolboy, aged 10, vows to keep visiting 90-year-old veteran in care home

Device shows promise for preventing pressure sores

Elderly woman slapped in Goulburn aged care facility, man arrested

Antipsychotics overused in residential aged care: Study

Aged care residents returning from hospital suffer unnecessary complications

Your rights and Refundable Accommodation Deposits

Call to fix access to aged care respite

Carer of dementia sufferer had no support

A business case for ‘going up the country’: 2019 ACAR

‘How did this happen?’: Owners speak after shock nursing home closure

No aged care respite available ‘unless someone dies’

Aged Care Royal Commission: Mildura right fit for aged care royal commission

Coroner To Investigate Death At Queensland’s Newest Nursing Home

Aged Care Royal Commission: Fears for future deepening, aged care royal commission hears

Aged care royal commission hears of ‘fatal flaw’ in Australia’s aged care system

ROYAL COMMISSION: Carers know best

ROYAL COMMISSION: Carers have no support

Mum could have been saved: aged inquiry

Migrants, refugees encouraged to ‘tell their stories’ to Aged Care Royal Commission

Aged care facilities still fully accredited by quality and safety commission failing to meet standards in SA

Funding available to upskill aged care staff

Qld aged care boss ‘a bully, drunk on job’

Maggie Beer’s fight for better food in aged care homes

‘If it’s not a criminal charge, it should be’: Calls for aged-care subcontracting probe

Royal commission probes aged home closure

Strategies to reduce potentially avoidable hospitalisations among long-term care facility residents

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has released its latest background paper on Australia’s current aged care system.

Background Paper 7: Legislative Framework for Aged Care Quality and Safety Regulation, summarises the key aspects and complexities of the current regulation of quality and safety in aged care.

The paper addresses a number of issues including:

• approval of providers, making them eligible to receive government subsidies and supplements to provide aged care
• the responsibilities of approved providers, including those in relation to quality of care, user rights and accountability
• accreditation and quality review processes
• enforcement and sanctions
• complaints processes
• advocacy and community visitors.

“Aged care quality and safety regulation is intended to protect and enhance the health and wellbeing of care recipients,” the paper states.

Read more:

Background Paper 7 – Legislative framework for Aged Care Quality and Safety regulation (.pdf)

In this issue:

• Accounting and Business Advisory Services commencing soon
• Future of Ageing Awards 2019

Home Care:

• Reminder to complete home care pricing information
• Home care and the Australian Consumer Law

Residential Care:

• ACFI review records requirement
• Residential Aged Care Funding Reform update
• MDFA SURVEY – Help evaluate the impact of digital training tools for Residential Aged Care Facilities

Read more:

Information for the Aged Care Sector – Issue 2019/10 (.pdf)

The latest insights from our award-winning Aged Care legal team.

In this edition:

• Update: Labour Hire Licensing July 2019
• Respite care access on the rise and residential care admissions down
• Timeframes for implementing the new Charter of Aged Care Rights
• Minimising physical and chemical restraint in residential aged care
• Additional Services and My Aged Care: some much needed clarity?

Read more:

Aged Care Bulletin 1 August 2019

The Royal Commission held a public hearing in Mildura from Monday 29 July 2019 to Wednesday 31 July 2019.

The public hearing looked at the needs of family, informal and unpaid carers for older Australians, with a focus on:

• the extent to which current arrangements meet those needs
• how services and supports for carers could be improved
• respite care

Read more:

29 July 2019 – Transcript (.pdf)

30 July 2019 – Transcript (.pdf)

31 July 2019 – Transcript (.pdf)

Family and friends who provide informal and unpaid care to older Australians are critical to the sustainability of the aged care system, and as the population in Australia continues to age, the reliance on informal carers is set to increase.

Background Paper 6: Carers of older Australians, released by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety today, explores the roles, challenges, and needs, of informal carers of older Australians. It also addresses services and supports to assist carers in their caring role.

The paper states that increasingly, older people in Australia are choosing to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible. A consequence of this has been an increasing reliance on family and friends to supplement formal home support services.

“Given the large number of family and friends providing care to people over the age of 65, it is clear that the replacement value of these services for the aged care system would be significant, critically affecting its current sustainability,” the paper notes.

Read more:

Background Paper 6 – Carers of older Australians (.pdf)

The Aged Care Quality Standards require aged care services that provide clinical care to demonstrate the use of a clinical governance framework (Standard 8e).

Clinical governance is an integrated set of leadership behaviours, policies, procedures, responsibilities, relationships, planning, monitoring and improvement mechanisms that are implemented to support safe, quality clinical care and good clinical outcomes for each consumer.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has worked with a range of stakeholders to develop resources to help aged care providers understand the key concepts of clinical governance and how to apply these concepts in their service. This includes a toolkit to help aged care providers develop a clinical governance framework that fits their service.

Read more:

Standard 8 – Requirement e – Where clinical care is provided – a clinical governance framework, including but not limited to the following:

i) antimicrobial stewardship
ii) minimising the use of restraint
iii) open disclosure

The Morrison Government and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has today jointly launched a new guide that aims to better aid Australians when faced with making decisions around medical treatments.

The AMA’s Informed Financial Consent Guide; A Collaboration Between Doctors and Patients will help patients better understand medical treatment fees and out of pocket costs.

The Guide will be made available from doctors, medical practices and organisations, and the AMA website.

Read more:

Informed Financial Consent Guide launched

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Mildura from Monday 29 July 2019 to Wednesday 31 July 2019. The public hearing will look at the needs of family, informal and unpaid carers for older Australians, with a focus on:

Carers for older Australians

• the extent to which current arrangements meet those needs
• how services and supports for carers could be improved
• respite care.

The Royal Commission will hold a public hearing in Brisbane from Monday 5 August 2019 to Friday 9 August 2019. The public hearing will inquire into the regulation of aged care, with a focus on:

Regulation of Aged Care

• regulation of quality and safety in aged care and how aspects of the current regulatory system operate
• different approaches to regulation, including in other sectors
• how regulation and oversight of quality and safety in aged care could be improved.

Read more:

Mildura Hearing

Brisbane Hearing

Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie has fulfilled a 2019 election commitment and introduced Private Member Bills into the 46th Parliament.

The legislation covered:

• Transparency in staffing ratios in aged care facilities, and
• A national screening program for aged care workers,

Read more:

Rebekha introduces five Private Members’ Bills

Transparency in staffing ratios in aged care facilities (.pdf)

A national screening program for aged care workers (.pdf)