News

The Department of Health has released a new edition of its ‘Information for Aged Care Providers’ newsletter.

Read more:

Information for Aged Care Providers – Issue #2016/10 (.pdf)

The Australian Aged Care Quality Agency has released the May 2016 issue of their ‘Quality Standard’ newsletter.

Read more:

Quality Standard – May 2016 (.pdf)

The Help Desk received a 100% satisfaction rating for the month of May 2016!

Thank you to everyone that provides feedback via the links at the completion of their support tickets. It’s great to hear you appreciate all the work our Help Desk staff provide to answer your queries and assist with any issues.

It is really nice to hear some of the comments like these:

“Melaan has a great knowledge of the billing system. Was a great help”
“always very patient and easy to understand, thanks”
“Great service”
“Excellent, very prompt and thorough!”
“Simply outstanding. Saved my sanity! Can’t thank you enough!”
“I am happy with Manad customer support as they had a good knowledge about the application and provided me specific answers”

The latest edition of the Residential Aged Care Communiqué is now available.

The Residential Aged Care Communiqué (RAC Communiqué) is an electronic publication containing narrative case reports about lessons learned from the Coroners’ investigations into preventable deaths in Residential Aged Care facilities.

Read more:

Residential Aged Care Communiqué – Volume 11, Issue 2, May 2016 (.pdf)

Microsoft will stop prompting users to upgrade to its Windows 10 operating system when its offer to migrate for free expires on July 29 2016 US time.

Read more:

Upgrade to Windows 10: FAQ

Australia’s national peak body for spiritual care and ageing has changed its name to Meaningful Ageing Australia.

Formerly known as ‘Pastoral and Spiritual Care of Older People (PASCOP)’, the new name aims to more clearly communicate to a wider audience what the organisation is about.

Read more:

Meaningful Ageing Australia
PASCOP Meaningful Ageing eNewsletter • APRIL

This publication is the first release of data from the 2015 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC).

It presents key information about disability prevalence in Australia as well as data about older Australians (those aged 65 years and over). Data is also included about people with disability who reported that they had experienced discrimination.

Older Australians – In 2015:

– There were 3.5 million older Australians (those aged 65 years and over), that’s nearly one in seven people (15.1% of the total population).
– Around 1.8 million older Australians reported living with disability (7.7% of the total population).
– Some 654,600 older Australians had profound or severe disability (18.5% of older Australians).

Read more:

4430.0.10.001 – Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: First Results, 2015

Media Release: 23rd May 2016

Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) spokesperson Beth Cameron is demanding Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reverse $3.1 billion of funding cuts his government has stripped from aged care.

The call comes after the inauguration of the first national board of a unified Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) peak body, replacing its former federated model.
“Our first item of business as a national board and a unified peak body is to seek a commitment from all political parties contesting the 2016 Federal Election to reverse funding cuts to aged care of $3.1 billion.”

Read more:

Media release: Reverse $3.1 billion funding cuts – fund the care seniors need and deserve (.pdf)

The 2016 Census will be conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on 9 August 2016.

Helping residents fill out forms

Where possible, care recipients should complete Census forms in the same way as any member of the public.
If you have care recipients who cannot physically fill out their forms, or cannot get help from family members or representatives, you may be able to nominate a staff member to be recruited and paid by the ABS as a Special Field Officer to help. The Special Field Officer can assist care recipients by interview or use information from administrative records to complete the Census form.

Read more:

How to help residents complete the 2016 Census
2016 Census Field Officers

Message from Minister for Health, Aged Care and Sport, the Hon Sussan Ley MP

The Turnbull Government is committed to delivering a plan to create a consumer-driven market approach to aged care, one which can also protect special needs groups and work in geographic areas where it is not always practical for providers to be ‘on the ground’.

Through our integrated approach to reform, we are also committed to supporting a diverse range of providers to be responsive to the care needs of older Australians.

Read more:

Minister’s message (.pdf)