Delivering excellence in aged care

The secret to excellence in aged care is compassion and commitment, delegates have heard at an industry conference on Tuesday.

“Nobody wants to come to work and do a bad job, I’ve not met one person that does,” said Melissa Argent – chief executive officer of Queensland provider Rockpool Residential Aged Care. “And I think we need to start celebrating that excellence that we see every day.”

Ms Argent appeared on a panel discussing achieving excellence in aged care at the Aged & Community Care Providers Association’s inaugural Queensland conference.

Facilitated by ACCPA CEO Tom Symondson, the panel also featured Daniel Aitchison – CEO of New South Wales and Queensland aged care provider Palm Lake Care; Liam Mayo – CEO at home care services provider Comlink Australia; Adrian Morgan – home care provider Flexicare; James Underwood of aged care management consultants James Underwood & Associates; and consumer advocate Claudine Swiney-Carroll.

The key to delivering excellence, said Mr Aitchison, is to be customer centric. “That real focus on the individual.”

However, Mr Aitchison acknowledged that there’s not a single model of care that’s going to work for every individual – “everyone’s different,” he said.

It’s important, he added, to gain feedback from residents, and ask “What would make your life easier? … What would make a difference to you rather than us burrowing down a path that might not be actually the right way.”

For Mr Underwood, quality care comes down to cash. “It’s very hard to provide excellence in care if you don’t have the money to do it. If you have the money then you can have the staff levels, you can have them well trained and well-incentivised … You have the management you need, the support you need, and the supervision – and on it goes. Without these things, it’ so difficult to think of having excellence in care.”

Ms Swiney-Carroll told delegates, for its part, the sector needed to be easier to engage with. “You’re like a hidden door. You’re kind of there but unless something happens to you and you have to break that door open, you’re not very accessible. There’s not a lot out there for you to read or touch-point on.”

When asked what government could do to help providers deliver better care, Mr Morgan told delegates it could cut the amount of red tape. “We’re drowning in regulation at the moment. So one of the things they could do is probably get out of the way a bit.”

Mr Morgan added he could not think of any service that had regulated its way to excellence. “Excellence,” he said, “comes from another place. Whereas what regulation tends to lead to is adequacy and safety – that’s what we can hope for from regulation.”

Government needs to also look at the way it regulates the sector, said Mr Morgan. “It would be great if it approached it with a lighter touch mode.” It seems as if regulation is the only response government can come up with, he added.

As the panel came to an end, questions were asked from the floor. One delegate asked the panellists to sum up in one word what the sector needed to do to change in order to satisfy the next generation of residents – the baby boomers. “It is about community, fundamentally,” said Mr Mayo.

For Ms Argent it was all about meeting expectations. “What they expect, we should be able to deliver. If we can’t adapt and create that … then we are in significant strife.”

Mr Morgan stressed the importance of maintaining relationships in aged care. “At the end of the day it’s a relationship between an individual and an older person. If that’s respectful and kind, that is what will be remembered; that is what will have impact.”

Mr Symondson had the last word: trust. “Our trust with government, the [royal] commission, our residents – our potential residents – our community. The reason it’s so easy to tell negative stories and so difficult to tell positive ones is because of a lack of trust.”

During the course of the two-and-a-half-day conference at The Star Gold Coast, around 400 delegates will receive an update on the government’s reform agenda, get insights into star ratings and quality indicators, and learn about the benefits of building workforce capacity – plus much more.

Delegates will also have the opportunity to network over drinks and dinner and catch up with their sector peers – some of whom they wouldn’t have seen in the flesh for four years since the last industry event held in the sunshine state.

The ACCPA Queensland conference kicks off a run of state events held by the provider peak during 2023 – a NSW & ACT conference will be held in May, with conferences in Victoria and Western Australia to follow in June.

ACCPA’s national conference – the largest aged care gathering in the southern hemisphere – will be held in October in Adelaide.

Main image left to right: Melissa Argent, James Underwood, Adrian Morgan, Daniel Aitchison, Claudine Swiney-Caroll and Liam Mayo

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