Meeting expectations key to success, ACCPA delegates told

Among the tough issues facing the aged care sector is “expectation management”, the shadow minister for health and aged care told an industry event last week.

Anne Ruston was speaking at the national conference of the Aged & Community Care Providers Association in Adelaide – Kaurna Country.

“If you don’t manage the expectations, often the people you’re delivering for, those inevitably fall flat,” she said. “Those expectations are not just about older Australians, but also about their families and their children.”

To manage expectations, the sector needs to be very clear when articulating its vision for the future of aged care, said Ms Ruston. “If all Australians can actually see where we’re going – what’s it going to look like into the future – then they can buy into it and, hopefully, be part of the solution to make sure that we do have a sustainable aged care sector.”

There is a great opportunity, added Ms Ruston, for the sector to engage in a debate, not just around aged care, but around “an aged care system that is actually going to deliver the expectations of future generations.”

During her 10-minute speech in the main hall of the Adelaide Convention Centre, Ms Ruston told delegates – the largest gathering of aged care providers in the southern hemisphere – that bipartisan support to deliver such a system – “is unquestioned.”

“If reform is real, if reform is significant, if reform drives the changes that we need to have a sustainable system into the future, then we will back it,” she said.

Ms Ruston told delegates she was looking forward to reviewing the findings of the Aged Care Taskforce. “I will not be critical of brave reform; I’ll be critical if the reform isn’t brave enough,” she said.

Acknowledging that the baby boomers are on their way into the system, Ms Ruston told delegates: “They have a capacity, probably, to pay more for what they’re getting.”

The sector also needs to embrace a flexible approach to delivering care in the future, said Ms Ruston. “Clearly one-size-fits-all is a really stupid way for going forward.”

Solutions for small country towns in South Australia are not going to be the same solution for people living in Adelaide, she said. “It’s equally not going to be the same solution in Coober Pedy or Oodnadatta.”

Ms Ruston told delegates the care provided in such places needs to be the same quality of care “but not necessarily the same type of care.”

Touching on workforce – “because I absolutely understand that workforce is your challenge” – Ms Ruston voiced concerns that “the current model of mandated care minutes continues to fail to recognise the value proposition of enrolled nurses.”

Ms Ruston also acknowledged “that we have probably missed an opportunity when it comes to allied health.”

This was not a political statement, she said, “but when we find out it actually could be done better, we have to be brave enough to say, ‘maybe we got it wrong and maybe we need to change it.’”

Referencing the revision of the Aged Care Act, Ms Ruston said this is “the mechanism and the opportunity to be able to define a vision that we want for our older Australians and our aged care sector.”

In closing, Ms Ruston told delegates that “the opportunities before us to be able to deliver an amazing aged care sector for older Australians must always be our absolute focus.”

A sustainable, vibrant aged care system is something that we can deliver, she said. “But we need to speak to you more about how we are able to do that because – as governments, as legislators and regulators – we are a long way from the coalface. You guys are at the coalface.”

Main image: delegates at the ACCPA national conference in Adelaide last week

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