Aged care sector under pressure:facing a staffing shortage

[bear]

Aged care sector under pressure: unions

Australia's aged care crisis is continuing to worsen with the sector facing a staffing shortage.

Australia's aged care crisis has worsened since the royal commission into the troubled sector with staffing a major issue, according to a prominent union.

United Workers Union aged care director Carolyn Smith, speaking to a Senate committee examining new legislation stemming from the royal commission, said shifts remained unfilled at "literally any facility you walk into around Australia".

It comes as worker bodies cited a "lack of detail" in the new legislation, which includes the introduction of nationally-consistent pre-employment screening and a new code of conduct.

It also extends the reporting of serious incidents from residential care to include home care and flexible care, and includes new governance responsibilities for approved providers.

Ms Smith said the legislation ignored a number of issues currently facing workers including a lack of work hours and the attraction, retention and training of staff.

"You're talking about screening without thinking about all those other issues, without thinking about wages, without thinking about how burnt out and exhausted the current workforce is," she said.

"I find it very problematic this is the first piece of legislation we're dealing with around quality of care."

Health Services Union aged care and disabilities manager Lauren Hutchins, pointing to a royal commission recommendation calling for a national registration scheme including mandatory qualifications and ongoing training requirements, labelled the draft bill "legislation light".

"It is light in substance and in detail and that is problematic for a workforce that is tired and fatigued," she said.

"We have an opportunity to rethink and revalue the aged care workforce but we must do it right. The holes in the legislation, the 'we will wait until later to give you the detail' is hugely problematic."

The royal commission found nearly 40 per cent of people living in Australia's aged care facilities experienced elder abuse, and that legislation focused on aged care provider funding rather than older people's care needs.

Ms Hutchins, who echoed the need to reshape the sector and implement an effective code of conduct, said the legislation did not acknowledge that failures in aged care were "deeply cemented" in a lack of staff, resources and support.

"The code of conduct, in trying to single out workforce and failing to recognise the obligations of organisations and fundamentally the government, is hugely problematic to us," she said.

"We want a code of conduct that delivers a robust change to aged care, that delivers for older Australians, that delivers for the workforce, but we want the detail and we want it to be done correctly."

Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia chairperson Mary Patetsos told the inquiry the royal commission did not sufficiently deal with the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse people, estimated to make up more than 35 per cent of those in aged care.

www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7503981/aged-care-sector-under-pressure-unions/

[latindancer]

The French have an old saying which, loosely translated, goes :

"the more things appear to change, the more they're just the same old thing"

[onemore]

Nov 10, 2021 13:47:12 GMT 7 latindancer said:

The French have an old saying which, loosely translated, goes :

"the more things appear to change, the more they're just the same old thing"

Can I use that please? There isn’t a copyright on it by chance?

[bear]

Nov 10, 2021 13:55:07 GMT 7 onemore said:

Nov 10, 2021 13:47:12 GMT 7 latindancer said:

The French have an old saying which, loosely translated, goes :

"the more things appear to change, the more they're just the same old thing"

Can I use that please? There isn’t a copyright on it by chance?

 Accordingly to zee latindancer  eet may belongs to zee French onemore !! Zo, I eem veery quietly confident M. Macron would not be in zee mood of forgiveness, especially to zose antipodean wastrels and vagabonds, so check carefully my friend; as eet is also veery possible 'e is sharpening up zee blades. Cheers bear 

[bear]

Skilled migration needed to relieve aged care staffing crisis, providers say

Aged care providers are calling on the federal government to create a special visa to bring workers from overseas to fill widespread shortages in the sector as Australia’s borders open.

The Australian Aged Care Collaboration, which represents more than 1000 providers caring for a million elderly Australians, has written to Health Minister Greg Hunt and Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck demanding a “dedicated aged care skilled migration program”.

Aged care operators are calling for a special visa to help fill staff shortages.

“We need the barriers to migration to be lifted,” Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Paul Sadler, who co-signed the letter, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Mr Sadler said border closures during the pandemic had made existing workforce shortages worse.

“We’re really struggling to find enough staff to keep the doors open,” he said.

Unions, however, say foreign workers are not the answer and wages in the sector must lift, but a Fair Work Commission case seeking a 25 per cent increase will not be heard until next year.

The 2020 Aged Care Workforce Census estimated there were 22,000 vacancies in direct care roles across the aged care sector in November and employers across the economy are competing over the 79,600 skilled migrants able to enter the country by July 2022.

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia has warned of a looming shortage of 110,000 aged care workers over the coming decade.

Mr Sadler called on the government to put aged care workers on the skilled occupations list, which includes registered nurses but not personal care workers or enrolled nurses, and for a lifting of restrictions on geographic areas overseas workers can be employed in.

Leading Age Services Australia chief executive Sean Rooney said a targeted skilled migration program specific to the sector was needed “to enable us to recruit suitably skilled and qualified people”.

“We’re facing major challenges, because of a whole range of competing forces resulting in high demand for staff and a very low response in [job] applications,” Mr Rooney, who also signed the letter, said.

Health Service Union national president Gerard Hayes said aged care workers were reporting “extreme” staff shortages in their workplaces.

“Right across the aged care industry, members are telling us it simply has not improved,” he said.

“We still don’t have a sustainable funding or staffing fix that lifts this industry out of crisis ... Providers are more interested in importing workers on temporary visas than lifting wages.”

The Aged Care Watch site, administered by the United Workers Union, has recorded more than 4290 reports of unfilled shifts since it launched in July.

Aged Care Workforce Industry Council chief executive Louise O’Neill said migration was just one part of the solution, saying the sector – which has an annual staff turnover rate of about 30 per cent – needed to create attractive career pathways for young Australian job seekers.

“Getting the wages right is going to be fundamental to growing the sector,” Ms O’Neill said.

“Aged care suffers from a negative image, yet it’s a massive industry.”

Professor Kathy Eagar, director of the University of Wollongong’s Australian Health Services Research Institute, said the industry’s high turnover rate was due to “poor pay and conditions” and creating a special visa “will just put a Band-Aid” on the problem.

“This is a workforce we shouldn’t have to import,” Professor Eagar said. “In the long term, we need to improve the attraction and retention of aged care workers in Australia.”

She said aged care workers earned less than they would at a supermarket checkout.

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said the government “recognises the additional pressures on staffing across the health and aged care sector”.

“We are confident as borders reopen and the vaccination program nears completion, the acute pressures on the aged care staffing will ease,” he said.

He said international students on temporary visas were helping fill gaps thanks to the government’s easing of visa rules, allowing them to work more than 40 hours a fortnight.

The Fair Work Commission process was independent of government, he said.

www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/skilled-migration-needed-to-relieve-aged-care-staffing-crisis-providers-say-20211109-p5976q.html

[latindancer]

Speaking of aged care, a friend is trying to get his mother vaccinated, but is finding it to be an uphill battle.

He is stuck here in QLD, and his mother is in a care facility in S.A, after fracturing a leg at home.
His mother is 91, wants a vaccine, and he wants her to have it. But he's being given the royal run-around with all sorts of excuses, some of which are circular and make your head swim when hearing them.

His knows about bureaucracy and is in fact a male nurse here in QLD. But do you think he can arrange for his own mother to get the COVID jab in a care facility in SA ? It's unbelievable, and occurring right now.

[bear]

Nov 14, 2021 7:59:01 GMT 7 latindancer said:

Speaking of aged care, a friend is trying to get his mother vaccinated, but is finding it to be an uphill battle.

He is stuck here in QLD, and his mother is in a care facility in S.A, after fracturing a leg at home.
His mother is 91, wants a vaccine, and he wants her to have it. But he's being given the royal run-around with all sorts of excuses, some of which are circular and make your head swim when hearing them.

His knows about bureaucracy and is in fact a male nurse here in QLD. But do you think he can arrange for his own mother to get the COVID jab in a care facility in SA ? It's unbelievable, and occurring right now.

latindancer that's almost made me pull the ol' tinfoil hat out of hiding....... They let the unvaccinated in, yet won't vaccinate those that are in there who want to get vaccinated. And to think, all of the former is hard cold facts...... Whatever we do though, mustn't mention the population decrease conspiracy theory. Doesn't quite seem the conspiracy now in the cold harsh light of known facts from S.A. though...... Totally & Utterly Bizarre!! Cheers bear

[ann]

These jobs pay $22-$25 an hour. It’s mainly casual so there is no holiday or sick pay. Those rates were being paid to factory workers 20 years ago. No wonder they can’t find people to work. Plus many require qualifications and you have to pay for the training yourself. These reports are very one sided. I bet the reporters would never work there either.