King’s birthday honours recognise aged care academic

Emeritus Professor Colleen Cartwright has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) “for significant service to aged care planning, policy and research”.

There are 919 recipients honoured in the General Division of the Order of Australia in the inaugural King’s Birthday Honours list announced by the Governor-General on Monday.

Professor Cartwright has been an Emeritus Professor at Southern Cross University since 2014. Prior to that, she was SCU’s Foundation Professor of Aged Services and director of the Aged Services Learning and Research Collaboration.

She has extensive teaching and research experience in ageing, ethics and medical decisions at the end of life – at national and international levels – with publications in major journals and several book chapters. 

Professor Cartwright designed the Queensland Advance Care Planning documents that became part of the state’s Powers of Attorney Act. She regularly runs information and training sessions on end-of-life care, including advance care planning, informed consent and capacity, and use of telehealth, with particular focus on the special needs of people with dementia and their carers. 

Her research has also covered issues related to voluntary assisted dying, both in Australia and internationally, including the right to adequate pain relief in terminal illness.

Professor Cartwright has been a board member for advocacy organisation Council on the Ageing New South Wales – of which she is now an honorary lifetime member. She is also a distinguished member of the Australian Association of Gerontology.

Speaking to Community Care Review, Professor Cartwright said her first response on hearing of the honour was surprise “because, like many others I expect, we do what we can in our work and for our communities and we don’t expect to be honoured for it.” 

Professor Cartwright added she had been very blessed to work with “lots of supportive and inspiring colleagues – and I suspect that some of them may have been instrumental in my nomination.”

She told CCR, given some of the people who have received such awards over the years, “I stand on the shoulders of giants and it is certainly an honour to be in such elevated company.”

Meanwhile, aged care executive Vivienne Allanson has been awarded a Medal of Order (OAM) “for service to the aged care sector”.

Ms Allanson has been CEO at Newcastle and Hunter region aged care provider Maroba since 1994. Previously, she was the organisation’s executive director of nursing.

Ms Allanson also held the role of vice president at Aged and Community Services Australia, president and director of Aged and Community Services Association NSW and ACT, and a founding member of the Hunter Ageing Alliance Committee.

Ms Allanson is also a conjoint fellow  at the University of Newcastle’s School of Nursing and Midwifery.

As well, she has been the director of the International Association of Homes and Services for the Aged – now the Global Ageing Network.

Ms Allanson told CCR it was “an enormous thrill and very unexpected” to receive the award. “I still have no idea who initiated that, but it’s great to have the aged care sector and older people acknowledged and deemed important enough to recognise with this sort of award,” she said.

Other recipients

Elsewhere in the honours list, Robyn Batten was appointed an AM “for significant service to the not-for-profit, health and aged care sectors”.

Among her health and aged care roles, Ms Batten was executive director at northern NSW and Queensland provider Blue Care.

She was also executive director at Uniting Aged Care Victoria and Tasmania, and executive director at Australian Regional and Remote Community Services. Ms Batten was also a former director of Aged and Community Services Australia.

Also appointed an AM, Anna Harrison “for significant service to multiculturalism in Western Australia, and aged care”.

In 2000, Ms Harrison founded Umbrella Multicultural Community Care Services, which includes in-home care. Up until 2022, she was also the not-for-profit organisation’s CEO. She is now an Umbrella board member.

Ms Harrison is also the founder of Rainbow Multicultural Aged Care and was a member of the Active Ageing Ministerial Committee for Seniors Western Australia.

She has also been the WA representative of the Positive CALD Ageing Network for the Federal Ethics Communities Council of Australia since 2018.  

Ann Davies has been awarded an OAM “for service to aged welfare”. She is board director at Leigh Place Aged Care in Roselands, Sydney – a role she has held since 2013.

A qualified nurse, Ms Davies has also been CEO at Ainsley Residential Aged Care, also in Sydney. For 12 years she was an external aged care quality assessor for the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

Other roles include a consultant for Australian Vietnamese Aged Care Services, coordinator for St Basil’s Nursing Home Student Placement Program, and secretary and chair or the Nursing Home Nurse Administrators Association.

See the full King’s Birthday 2023 Honours List here.

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