Aged care’s richest prize

Among the awards and accolades last week was the $35,000 Provider Assist National Scholarship, which went to Greg Price of Baptist Community Services.

Above: Greg Price receives the Provider Assist National Scholarship.

Greg Price, Executive Care Manager with Baptist Community Services NSW & ACT, walked away with the first Provider Assist National Scholarship at last week’s Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) National Conference.

The $35,000 scholarship has the highest dollar value of any aged care industry award, and includes a trophy and plaque as well as an all-expenses-paid SAGE study tour of Chicago, New York and Washington, including education and training activities and $2,000 in spending money.

While on the study tour, Mr Price will attend the International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (IHASA) Global Ageing Conference in Washington and meet with key international leaders in aged care, accompanied by Baptist Community Services NSW & ACT chief executive officer, Ross Low. 

With more than 20 years worth of experience as a director of nursing in aged care, based in NSW and Queensland, Greg has remained passionate about enriching individuals’ lives through a holistic approach to their care.  

In 2004, Greg developed an ‘interaction based care’ initiative to assist staff in reassessing how they engage with the older people, to reinforce the importance of developing relationships and ensuring older people feel valued as individuals.  

In his current role, based in Alstonville, NSW, Greg has introduced three new projects:

  • A community network development initiative with a retired university professor, to develop links with a range of local identities and groups
  • A 12-month interactive change management program to develop and embed new care initiatives
  • A project to elicit and share clients’ life stories

Greg has a diploma in nursing administration and a degree in health administration. In 2001, he received the Minister’s award for Professional Excellence in Residential Aged Care from the Department of Health and Ageing. He has presented 18 papers at Australian conferences and seminars and his work has been widely published.

Provider Assist congratulated Greg on his exceptional efforts and outstanding contribution to the industry and the lives of older people. The aged care funding specialist launched the scholarship program in 2010, “to acknowledge and support the invaluable service provided by the aged care sector”.

“Provider Assist hope the Scholarship Program will change some of the lives of those that change so many every day.”

The $56,000 program comprises six state scholarships, as well as the national scholarship won by Mr Price, which is open to the winners from each state and territory.

Nominations for the 2012 National Scholarship open on September 14, 2011. Click here for information and registration details. The scholarship program is open to anyone employed by an approved provider.  

Tags: acsa, acsa-national-conference-2011, baptist-community-services, bcs-nsw-act, iahsa, provider-assist, sage, study-tour,

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