Aged care workers are challenging Minister Richard Colbeck to take a first simple step to fix the crisis in aged care: meet with workers and listen to their solutions.
“After multiple letters to Richard Colbeck this year, aged care workers have not had the courtesy of a response,” United Workers Union Aged Care Director Carolyn Smith said today.
“Listening to aged care workers is vital to understanding the failures in aged care Senator Colbeck is responsible for.
“Senator Colbeck has spent a lot of time ducking his responsibility for this crisis – it’s time he looked aged care workers in the eye and heard from them what’s going on.
“Aged care workers are challenging Senator Colbeck to meet as a matter of urgency to discuss their solutions.”
Ms Smith made the comments while launching the National Aged Care Staffing Master Plan covering aged care workers in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Workers are contributing to the plan to fix the broken aged care system in response to years of inaction on aged care by the Federal Government.
Mel, an aged care worker from Western Australia said, “We’re always short staffed, and it has a domino effect. It’s stopping us from doing the best we can for the residents. We need safe working numbers.
“We’re in aged care day in, day out, 24/7. I don’t understand why employers and government aren’t asking us what needs to happen. They need to ask us, the aged care workers, because we are the ones with the expertise,” she added.
Backing up her statements, Donna, an aged care worker from South Australia, said “People are telling me on a daily basis they’re unsupported, understaffed, and the workload is ridiculous. The problems in aged care aren’t isolated, they’re the same nation-wide. But the federal government isn’t doing anything about it. I want to say to the federal government, have any of you walked into an aged care facility and actually worked there?”
The continuing neglect of aged care has been once again identified in the Royal Commission’s most recent findings that Federal Government preparations for Covid-19 in aged care were insufficient and the government needed a comprehensive plan.
“The National Aged Care Staffing Master Plan is a chance for the real experts, aged care workers, to tell decision makers what quality aged care should look like,” Ms Smith said.
“The only way we can solve the crisis in aged care is by listening to the real experts, and putting workers at the heart of decisions in aged care.”
Workers’ voices from the National Aged Care Staffing Master Plan will provide the solutions in aged care that ensure better jobs and quality care for residents.
“I’ve worked in aged care for so long and I’ve seen it going backwards. It’s been the same thing from this government for years,” said Pauline an aged care worker from Queensland.
“They don’t understand what the problems are and they don’t ask the frontline workers. They just don’t want to know.”
Aged care staffing has to be monitored cleverly or it will quickly become like the hospital system where they are essentially staffed in case of an emergency. Sadly, some staff in any industry think they are hard done by but aged care nurses definitely need a 10% pay rise.
It’s important to remember that most facilities are appropriately staffed for the blend of resident needs.
This ratio push needs to be done properly and no one has put up a good plan to date. Don’t let this get like the ACFI mess where a few rorted the system and everyone was condemned. Where I work having formal staff ratios will confirm that we are over staffed compared to some but it’s not as simple as a particular number of staff to a particular number of residents. Residents needs have to be factored firstly.
“we are the ones with the expertise,””
You are joking! More union propaganda.
Most nursing staff in aged care have little more than a cert three in aged care. A SIX week course, that’s right six weeks. Being trained by corrupt training organisations who are only interested in receiving their payment from the government than actually educating thé carers of our elderly.
Most AIN aged care staff have only taken a job in aged care due to the threat of having their welfare payments cut.
You don’t hear the unions talking about the fact that most if their members didn’t choose to work in aged care. You don’t hear the unions talking about the fact that a large majority of aged care AINs only want to work 8 hours a week. Because to work anymore than that means they get paid less welfare.
And these are the people we are giving the responsibility to care for our most vulnerable.
Aged care is not hospital, I work in aged care as a EN and have done so for more than 15 years. The majority of providers staff their facilities to the correct assessed care needs of their residents. Aged care does not need nor can it afford the staff ratios the unions want.
The union propaganda that the AIN care staff will spend more time socialising with their residents once the residents care needs have been taken care if are just UNTRUE!!
The last thing aged care needs is more poorly trained non motivated AIN care staff standing around or sleeping on night shift.
Increase the ACFI amounts so that providers can staff appropriately trained staff based on the assessed care needs of the residents.
Shame on the unions for just being concerned about increasing their union membership and fees
Regards,
From .A aged care worker who doesn’t believe the aged care system is broken. The industry needs to be able to employ care staff that actually wasn’t to work in aged care.
It would seem that at the minute we have multiple points of view being expressed by everyone with an interest, or stake, in aged care. Those views appear to be contradictory, and their diversity is not contributing to solving the challenges. I have a colleague who has a current visit by Assessors from the ACSQC. In their dementia unit they have 24 residents and seven staff of a morning. That seems to me to be a good staffing level, yet both the staff themselves and an assessor have the view that it is insufficient. Ultimately we will only be able to have the level of staffing that the government, providers and consumers collectively agree is fundable. We cannot have what we, Australian society, cannot pay for.