A media coup for aged care [photos]
Anthropologist, Margaret Mead, said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ACCV agrees.
Above: ACCV CEO, Gerard Mansour with 97 year old Mim Egan, the ‘face’ of the campaign
By Keryn Curtis
Aged and Community Care Victoria has pulled off an enviable media coup with its recent ‘Be Inspired!’ campaign, kick starting the Victorian 2011 Seniors Festival.
The campaign’s high profile event on Sunday 2 October involved a dozen seniors, all residents or clients of Victorian aged and community care providers, driving into Melbourne’s Federation Square in a cavalcade of V8 cars.
CEO of Aged & Community Care Victoria (ACCV), Gerard Mansour said he was extremely pleased with the success of the event, not just as an event on the day but with the messages conveyed about older people in the media response it drew.
“People said to us, to get a lead story like that on all the four mainstream tv channels was a huge coup.
“It shows how a small group of committed and innovative marketing and communications people who are excited by their work and passionate about being in aged care can make that happen.”
Mr Mansour said taking a lead role in seniors week was a way of reflecting one of the key interests of aged care providers themselves.
“Each year we survey our members about the top issues for them and the role we can play as an association. Every year, the image of the industry comes up as number three or four on the priority list.
“It’s a difficult thing to do anything about. So we developed a deliberate strategy and drew on a group of young marketing and communications people from eleven member organisations. We said we wanted to communicate the positive contribution of older people.
“We decided that working with the state government on seniors week was something we wanted to do so we went to the state government and they were happy for our involvement and this became the dominant event for the launch,” he said.
Mr Mansour said the team should be congratulated fairly and squarely for their outstanding achievement..
“There were 11 organisations altogether and they have all done it on behalf of the entire industry generally to showcase what the industry does for older people. It was a big target – to improve the image of older people – but it was a great success.”
“We put some packs together to give away to people visiting our stand – little kits with information about ‘what is aged care’ and some of the things we were doing. We prepared over 1,000 and they went in forty minutes!
“It was incredible to see how enthusiastic Victorian seniors were and just how effectively the industry can work together to promote positive ageing,” he said.
Watch the tv news coverage here:
See more pictures below:
Above: Residents, carers and CEOs from the aged care industry banded together to show that older people can live life to the full for the Be Inspired! campaign this Victorian Seniors Festival
