Poor comms remain key issue for consumers
It is disappointing to see the same issues being raised for a second year in a row, says OPAN chief.
Shortcomings in provider communication is the top service delivery related issue across aged care programs – again, a new report from the Older Person’s Advocacy Network has found.
OPAN’ fourth Presenting Issues report on the National Aged Care Advocacy Program released on Wednesday analyses more than 44,000 cases of advocacy and information support across its national network in 2023-2024. It’s a 20-per-cent increase on 2022-23 cases and equates to 3.5 per cent of aged care recipients.
Service delivery was behind around half of the issues raised about the residential and home care package programs and a quarter of issues in the Commonwealth Home Support Program. Poor communication topped the service delivery issue list for all three, while contact issues over fees and charges took the number one spot for financial issues in these aged care programs.
OPAN chief executive officer Craig Gear said the issues have been consistent across the last three annual reports.
“It is disappointing to see poor communication and a lack of transparency on fees and charges in the issues being raised with OPAN for a second year in a row,” Mr Gear told Australian Ageing Agenda.
“The Complaints Commissioner at the Aged Care Quality & Safety Commission has also seen a similar trend as outlined in their recent report. It is clear there is more work to do to improve the standard across the sector.”
He said the new Aged Care Act would go a long way to resolving these issues.
“We look forward to an enhanced program of open disclosure and ready access to restorative pathways, which is something providers can commence preparing for now,” Mr Gear said.
Residential aged care snapshot
There were 3,434 advocacy cases – 24 per cent of all 14,238 advocacy cases – relating to residential aged care including respite, which is 2.4 times higher than expected when compared to the number of older people receiving these services.
Poor communication was the most common service delivery issue, followed by a lack of information and support to make choices and decisions, and support to make complaints.
“These three issues co-occurred as poor communication by providers often led to older people not being able to engage directly with the provider to express their needs and preferences and have their concerns regarding service delivery addressed,” the report found.
Fees and charges were found the most common financial issue raised and often co-occurred with queries about invoices or statements, agreements, poor provider communication and a lack of transparency.
The most common single issue raised about residential aged care providers were concerns around fees and charges – 566 times, equating to 16 per cent of all 3,434 residential aged care advocacy cases.
See our story on Community Care Review for findings related to the HCP program and CHSP.
OPAN makes almost 50 recommendations
The report includes 47 policy recommendations – including 23 remaining from last year’s report – across six areas:
- aged care rights (6 recommendations)
- workforce (4)
- accessing aged care (10)
- service availability (6)
- service delivery (5)
- financial issues (12)
- aged care advocacy (4).
OPAN’s chief recommendation is that all workers be required to uphold the Statement of Rights, so older people’s needs and wishes are addressed, said Mr Gear.
He reiterated calls for no further delays to the implementation of the new Aged Care Act.
“We all have a lot of work to do to ensure readiness for this new Aged Care Act, and we will continue to engage with the sector to ensure they are upholding the rights of older people,” Mr Gear told AAA.
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As a home care provider, I would like to comment on the complaints from consumers re poor communication.
In our findings, we certainly engage with our consumers on a regular basis, but we also find that there are a high percentage of complaints from consumers or consumers families that are unjustified. These unjustified complaints are registered as a complaint and therefore are added to the stats. If the complaints regarding communication were vetted to see if it is a genuine complaint or not prior to passing onto the providers to then have put forward detailed explanations and presenting documentation to substantiate what the provider has done was correct all along, this I am in no doubt will decrease the stats as well as the extra burden on providers.