BLOG

Does Australia need a Disability sector and an Aged Care sector? Would care and service recipients be better served by one Support sector?

Whether this man requires his wheelchair due to genetic disorder, injury, mental health, disease or ageing, he and fellow recipients of services in both sectors have the same needs: they need assistance to do things they are unable to do for themselves. Is it reasonable for care and service recipients to be funded at different levels simply because they have been labeled as ‘Aged’ rather than ‘Disabled’? Does it make sense for tax payers to fund two different government bureaucracies with essentially the same purpose?

Put simply, does it matter why you need care or assistance? Is the care or assistance provided different? No, it isn’t.

Do you measure a Resident's goals in their care plan?   Not easy when the care plan is many pages in a 2 ring folder, or across many screens in your clinical software program.

How do you communicate their progress and outcomes during your care conference meeting? You are probably using 'met 'or 'not met' like the accreditation standards, but what does this really tell you?

Have you ever thought 'I wish there was a simple way to display a quantitative representation of the resident's progress towards their goals that I could share with their families and the carers'?

There is a way to provide a graphical view that is easy to understand, measurable and can be tracked. Read on to learn more.............

The most frequent answer I get when I pose this question is an emphatic no. But the answer is a resounding yes.

In fact, I have pulled it off twice in the space of 10 years. I will say that on both occasions, it was a positive transition and well worth it. The benefits included realised reduction in man-hours that were redirected from admin to direct care services. In one case that meant the creation of a second lifestyle coordinator position.

The secret: you must believe it can happen to make it happen.