Lights, Camera, Care Factor!
A NSW residential and community aged care provider is taking great strides with film and social media and ticking off a lot of important boxes in the process.
Above: Star of the show: carer, Diane Holt, right, with one of her clients, Daisy
By Keryn Curtis
How to provide clear and engaging information to potential clients while selling the joys of working as a carer and making your organisation look good to boot? Warrigal Care in New South Wales, yesterday unveiled a new tool they believe does exactly that.
“The Care Factor” is a 10 minute short documentary film, produced by Warrigal Care in collaboration with Punch Productions (now TVU). It takes a ‘day in the life’ view of Diane Holt, a Warrigal Care community carer, from the moment she wakes, right through to returning home at the end of the day.
Through the camera’s lens we discover Diane as a wife, mother and grandmother. She lives with her husband Rob and, like many Australian grandparents, also finds time to care for her grandchildren, on top of her job as an aged care worker. We meet several of Diane’s clients living in a range of different circumstances; see the wide variety of tasks she performs; and how she connects with other carers and colleagues at the support services centre.
Diane has worked for Warrigal Care for nine years and, like many people attracted to the aged care sector, she has plenty of natural warmth.
“The Care Factor” is the self-described ‘baby’ of Warrigal Care’s community relations coordinator, Catherine Miller, who worked with the production company to produce the short film.
“Since 2006, we have tried to produce a short film of some kind for the AGM and the annual dinner. Last year we did the ‘Lust for life’ video clip. This year the focus for the annual dinner was on ‘compassion’.
“Since acquiring AllCare In Home Services this year, for the first time in 43 years, we are now caring for more people living in the community than in residential care. So we decided to focus on community services. The idea was to make something very personal – not just looking at the work but the person themselves and their colleagues and show how they are part of team and an organisation – so we decided to follow a carer from the time of waking to the end of their day,” said Ms Miller.
Ms Miller said they wanted to tackle the perception among a lot of older people that accepting community care services was like taking one step closer to residential care.
“We wanted to reassure people that it actually helps them to stay at home longer. People don’t know that. They think they need to be really sick to get care so we’re trying to get people to talk about it. These services are there and available and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help to be able to live longer and happier at home.
Ms Miller says the film deliberately avoids being a promotional film about Warrigal Care.
“We were not trying to promote Warrigal Care specifically, but to promote the general message about community services being a good thing and not something to be afraid of. And we also wanted to be able to use it to show what it is like to be a care worker, to attract people into careers in community aged care. Advocacy is an important part of our role,” she said.
“This film really explains all those things and it is so much more powerful than any brochure. We’re hoping people will share it on their own websites and social media sites and pass it around and that it can go ‘viral’,” she said.
Above: Two other real-life stars – Warrigal Care clients, Kath and Ian Hilton
Keeping it real
Warrigal Care’s CEO, Mark Sewell agrees that the film cleverly shows what the experience of community care is really like – for both the recipient and the care worker – without resorting to marketing gloss or ‘corporate spin’.
“Most people think that aged care is all formalised and hospital-like but much of it is informal and relational and social and this shows how real and friendly and warm and engaging it can be so it’s a really good insight for potential care recipients but also for people who want to work in community care.
“We really pulled back on scripting any of it and we think that’s important. Nobody believes or trusts corporate spin. […] What people believe now is consumers themselves and staff and what real people think.
“It’s like when you travel, you don’t just believe the website and the advertisements about the hotel; you go online and check out the reviews from people who have stayed there. That’s the lovely thing about social media,” Mr Sewell said.
“There are a lot of short video messages on youtube and other places by people who have concerns and complaints about aged care, describing what it’s like to feel vulnerable and frightened. So this is out there on youtube providing an alternative perspective,” Mr Sewell said.
Mr Sewell said he believed there would be continued growth in the number of people expressing and sharing their experiences and opinions of services via social media and this was leading to a new cultural paradigm around marketing and customer service.
“The number of people making complaints and expressing concerns and sharing them with everyone via social media will only grow in the future.
“We know in this social media environment people have the right to comment and talk about your services. You can’t control anyone’s view about what you do. What you need to do is learn to reframe criticisms as suggestions for improvement and that requires a major cultural shift all because sometimes they are pretty strong and confronting.
“So we expect some people to not like it and expect other people to be really informed and inspired by it,” Mr Sewell said.
Above: Diane, left, and some of her clients meet to discuss the film
Catherine, my sister saw this and sent it to me, she was very impressed and we are now sending it to the UK. Regards, Kath