News

Residential Aged Care Providers can apply now for the Specialist Dementia Care Program.

The Specialist Dementia Care Program (SDCP) provides care for people who are exhibiting very severe behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, and are unable to be appropriately cared for by mainstream aged care services. The Australian Government is committed to establish 35 SDCP units nationally, with a unit in each of the 31 Primary Health Network (PHN) regions

Read more:

Aged Care Alert: Specialist Dementia Care Program Phase Two Grant Opportunity now open

Apply now on GrantConnect

A list of new and updated resources – including apps, audio and video resources and other publications – about aged care.

Read more:

Growing and supporting the aged care workforce (.pdf)

Get involved in transforming aged care (.pdf)

Aged care reforms progress in 2021 (.pdf)

RACF volunteer factsheet and statement of agreement (.pdf)

COVID-19 vaccination – winter doses for senior Australians (.pdf)

Aged care funding reforms (video)

COVID-19 vaccination – Consent guidance material for residential aged care (.pdf)

COVID-19 vaccination – What to expect on COVID-19 vaccination day at your residential aged care facility (.pdf)

COVID-19 vaccination – Booster information for residential aged care workers – are you up to date? (.pdf)

Aged care workforce action plan 2022 – 2025 (.pdf)

How to get your COVID-19 vaccination – residential aged care workers (.pdf)

Protect yourself and aged care residents from COVID-19 (.pdf)

Why should aged care workers get a COVID-19 vaccine (.pdf)

Are you up to date with your COVID-19 vaccinations? (.pdf)

COVID-19 vaccination – Shared decision making guide for frail older people, including those in residential aged care facilities (.pdf)

Food and Nutrition Report (.pdf)

Influenza vaccination is particularly important this year. With the easing of international and domestic public health measures arising from the COVID-19 global pandemic, cases of influenza are expected in 2022, with the Australian community potentially more vulnerable to the virus this winter.

The recent Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) statement on winter season preparedness strongly recommends that vaccination remains one of the most effective protective factors for both COVID-19 and influenza. Both vaccines are recommended for residents ahead of the winter season. It is also important that residents and staff are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations. For residents and other vulnerable groups, it is also recommended that an additional COVID-19 dose be received ahead of winter. Influenza vaccines can be safely given on the same day as COVID-19 vaccines.

Read more:

Preparing your service for winter – influenza vaccinations and treatments

In this edition:

• Commissioner’s message
• Governing for Reform in Aged Care program open
• Commission’s upcoming roundtable discussions
• Incident management system essential element #2 – Responding to incidents
• Joint action to reduce the inappropriate use of psychotropic medicines
• Our latest ‘Sector performance report’ is now available
• New and updated Commission resources

Read more:

Aged Care Quality Bulletin #39 – March 2022

The expert Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) recommends an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose for residents in aged care facilities before winter.

The recommended COVID-19 Winter vaccine dose is to bolster residents’ protection from severe illness, hospitalisation or death from COVID-19 over the winter season.

In addition to aged care residents and people living in disability accommodation, ATAGI recommends a COVID-19 Winter dose for other vulnerable groups also considered to be most at risk of serious illness.

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ATAGI recommends COVID-19 Winter vaccine dose for residents in aged care facilities

The Australian Government is now entering the second year of the 5-year aged care reform program, in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

The Budget 2022-23 further invests $522 million in the aged care reforms. This grows the Government’s commitment to the reforms to $18.8 billion.

Key elements of the Budget 2022-23 are:

• $345.7 million to improve medication management in residential aged care facilities.
• $48.5 million for 15,000 additional aged care training places for new and existing personal care workers, to a total of 48,800 places.
• $20.1 million committed to the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN ACC) Transition Fund to ensure no facility receives less funding in the first two years of the new funding model compared with their current funding.
• $5.4 million to continue consultation and development of a new regulatory framework for aged care.
• $6.1 million to continue the rollout of regionally focused Department of Health staff in Primary Health Network regions.

Read more:

Budget 2022–23: Residential aged care quality and safety – assuring access to multidisciplinary care and maintaining effective quality audits (.pdf)

Budget 2022–23: Workforce – growing and upskilling the workforce to improve care for senior Australians (.pdf)

Budget 2022–23: Residential aged care services and sustainability – improved funding for residential aged care (.pdf)

Budget 2022–23: Home care – supporting senior Australians to remain independent for longer (.pdf)

Budget 2022–23: Governance – Delivering a strong regulatory framework and growing community engagement (.pdf)

Sentinel events are the most serious adverse patient safety events in our healthcare system. And it’s important that we all learn from them.

That’s why we release this report every year – to share what we have learnt and to help health services prevent similar events.

Even when our healthcare system faces extraordinary challenges, 2020–21 demonstrated continued commitment by our health services to recognise, review and respond to adverse patient safety events.

This year, we focused on three sentinel event themes:

• mental health
• residential aged care
• the impact of COVID-19 in healthcare settings.

Read more:

Supporting patient safety: Learning from sentinel events – Annual report 2020–21 (.pdf)

Please note that today’s meeting has been rescheduled to:

• Monday 4 April, 4.00pm – 5.00pm (AEST).

If you have already registered to attend, you will have received an updated calendar notification and you do not need to register again.

We apologise for any inconvenience this change may cause.

If you have not previously registered, you can still do so for the new time. Please register to attend.

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Re-scheduled : Update on Aged Care and COVID-19 with the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services

As part of the Australian Government’s investment of a further $1.2 billion to prepare and protect senior Australians against COVID-19 and influenza this winter, the Australian Government is pre-positioning personal protective equipment (PPE) standard packs in all residential aged care services. This includes residential aged care facilities (RACFs), multi-purpose services (MPS), and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (NATSIFACP) services.

PPE is a vital component of effective outbreak management and having both the right types and amount of stock on-hand, as well as a place to safely store it and access it quickly is crucial.

Read more:

Winter Preparedness PPE Packs

Dear Janet,

As the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, I am writing to outline my expectations of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (Commission), with a focus on the next 12 months.

These expectations are consistent with the Australian Government’s commitment to ensure effective governance and performance of the Commission, in accordance with the requirements of the Aged Care Act 1997, Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Act 2018 (Commission Act) and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).

The Government’s five-year plan, built around five pillars and underpinned by additional investment of over $18 billion, provides a clear roadmap for improvements in aged care to restore trust and confidence in the aged care sector. This is a once in a generation
opportunity to deliver transformational change and will see a significant shift and uplift across the aged care sector, as well as within the Commission.

Read more:

Minister Colbeck Statement of Expectations 1 April 2022 (.pdf)