News in brief
A round up of industry news including an environmentally friendly retirement village, food alert, research, and educational events.
Compiled by Natasha Egan
- Aged care assessment research tops rural health conference agenda
- Aged care subsidy indexation projection
- Sexually active men over 50 wanted for prostate study
- New leader at the helm of Icon Global
- Human Rights Commission urges anti-discrimination consolidation to continue
- Dementia care workshop on using visual cues to better communicate
Collaborative research into aged-care assessment has been given top billing at Australia’s upcoming rural health conference.
The project explores what is needed at a local level in order to develop an integrated model of assessment and align the work of specialist assessment teams.
Sue Cowan from the John Richards Initiative at La Trobe University and Fiona MacPhee, Program Manager of the Integrated Aged Care Assessment Service (ACAS), Ovens and King Community Health Service have conducted an 18-month project exploring integrative assessment processes for older people entering aged care in northeast Victoria.
Their research summary, known as an abstract, was selected by the National Rural Health Alliance as the number one abstract from 517 to be presented at April’s conference in Adelaide.
Assessment informs people’s entrance into care, as well as the direction their care takes once they are in the system, Ms Cowan said. This research has enhanced the knowledge base for improving the gateway to the aged care system in rural areas, she said.
The 12th National Rural Health Conference runs from April 7 – 10 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. See the conference website for more details.
The Commonwealth aged care subsidies will be indexed by an estimated 1.473 per cent, rounded to 1.5 per cent, as at 1 July 2013, according to aged care consultant James Underwood.
James Underwood & Associates annually prepares a projection of the likely July 1 indexation, which is known as the COPO (Commonwealth Own Purpose Outlay) increase.
This preliminary projection of 1.5 per cent will be finalised after the release of the March 2013 quarter CPI on 24 Apr 2013.
As the CPI movements account for only 25 per cent of COPO changes, there should be little change from this projected COPO at that time, Mr Underwood said.
However, he cautioned that last year Minister for Ageing Mark Butler unexpectedly determined there would be no ACFI increase, regardless of CPI and AWE (average weekly earnings) movements.
Researchers in hospitals in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide are seeking sexually active men with an enlarged prostate to take part in an international study.
The GlaxoSmithKlin project is open to men aged over 50 and is assessing whether an enlarged prostate and medicines used to treat the condition help or hinder sexual health and performance.
Urologist Associate Professor Henry Woo, who is leading the study from the Sydney Adventist Hospital in Sydney, said symptoms of an enlarged prostate include not fully emptying the bladder, needing to go to the toilet very regularly, straining at the start of urination, having a weak stream or waking up regularly at night to pass urine.
As participants need to be sexually active to take part, the researchers have settled on ‘at least once a month’ for the purpose of this study, Professor Woo said.
There are no participation costs and travel expenses can be reimbursed. For more information men who think they may be suitable should call the national toll free number, 1800 800 285.
Icon Global, which owns community care sector product carelink+, has announced a change in leadership.
Director and co-owner Craig Porte is to become the majority shareholder and take over as CEO and managing director after purchasing the company.
The move follows founder Scott Popovic’s decision to step down as director, sell his shareholding, and finish up employment with Icon Global at the end of the month after 17 years with the organisation.
However, Mr Popovic will continue with Icon on a constulting basis while he pursues other interests.
Mr Porte said he had bold and exciting plans for Icon Global including new technology rolling out in the next 12 months which is set to quantum leap carelink+ in the market.
The commonwealth government must commit to addressing inconsistency, complexity and confusion in existing different discrimination laws now, says Australian Human Rights Commission president.
Professor Gillian Triggs is calling on the government to respond to legitimate concerns expressed about the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill exposure draft and introduce a revised version of the bill.
The Australian Human Rights Commission is concerned a lack of progress on a consolidated bill will further delay any capacity to achieve harmonisation for several years, Prof Triggs said.
While the states and territories have a standard for discrimination, the commonwealth has several which means harmonisation cannot occur until federal discrimination law is tidied up, she said.
Prof Triggs said the Commission also hoped the proposed removal of exemptions for aged care were included in amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, and that the Commission would engage in public debate about the specifics of the proposed amendments when they were released.
An international dementia expert is holding a workshop in Sydney next month to help carers use visual cues to better communicate with people with dementia.
Ohio State University’s Professor Michelle Bourgeois will introduce using pictures and sentences to communicate with people with dementia, in order to enhance conversation and address memory-related behaviours.
During the one-day workshop Prof Bourgeois will demonstrate strategies including memory wallets, memory books and reminder cards to modify problematic behaviours and maintain conversation skills
The workshop is suitable for family and professional carers of people with dementia. It is on Thursday April 18 at the North Ryde RSL Club and costs $150. For more information or to register, which is essential, contact Alzheimer’s Australia NSW education department on (02) 8875 4651 or nsw.education@alzheimers.org.au.
If seeking other dementia related information, call the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500 or visit Alzheimer’s Australia’s website www.fightdementia.org.au.
