Aged care matters It’s a real privilege to join Pip at the National Roundtable on Aged and Community Care for Forgotten Australians. We meet each month on Zoom with a dedicated group of support workers and Care Leavers from around Australia to discuss issues Care Leavers face when accessing My Aged Care packages and other topics about ageing. We’re often joined by representatives from the Department of Health. I’ve picked up lots of ideas and also had the chance to contribute to a video for Global Community Resourcing in Queensland and do a podcast interview for the Real Care Second Time Around project, developed by Elm Place in Adelaide and the Canberra Institute of Technology. This project will soon provide an online Accreditation course for Aged Care workers where they are required to watch video’s, listen to podcasts and complete an assessment about Forgotten Australians, Former Child Migrants and Stolen Generations and how to work with Care Leavers. It’s a significant breakthrough and I look forward to the launch so we can share this resource with everyone at
with Margo O’Byrne Tuart Place. It will be a real game changer for aged care staff and for us. Meeting up with others around Australia has highlighted how lucky we are to have Tuart Place. It also gives Pip and me a chance to let people around Australia know that, although we’re not a ‘Find & Connect’ service, we always need to be included in national discussions. The roundtable is hosted by Anne Livingstone from Global Community Resourcing in Brisbane. Among their projects, they explore creative ways to help Care Leavers use Smart Technology. Their website, www.satcommunity.com.au has loads of information. If you want a laugh, have a look at this video about smart technology and how one person adapted it to suit his lifestyle: https://vimeo.com/128873380
Top Ten Questions to ask when looking for residential aged care A new resource is available to assist Care Leavers/Forgotten Australians looking for aged care accommodation, by listing some key questions to ask service providers. This brochure is a guide for Care Leavers to ask those questions that matter to them when making decisions about residential accommodation. The resource was developed by Meg Schwartz and Fran Lovell of The Real Care Second Time Around Project, in collaboration with Forgotten Australians/Care Leavers. The brochure will also assist the aged sector to better understand and engage with older people who have lived experience of out-of-home care, and will be included as a link in the Canberra Institute of Technology’s
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More than half a million children were placed in institutional and out-of-home care under various arrangements in the last century. ‘Care Leavers’ may also be known as ‘Forgotten Australians’, ‘Former Child Migrants’ or ‘Stolen Generations’. Many in this group experienced control, abuse, had their basic rights taken from them and have significant anxieties about entering aged care.
Helping Hand Aged Care Program Manager Fran Lovell and Project Officer Meg Schwarz.
new e-training module about Care Leavers. This resource will also be circulated throughout the aged care sector by the Commonwealth Department of Health’s Aged Care and Diversity Section, and will be available to all aged care organisations that support Care LeavThis brochure has been prepared by ers. Real Care the Second Helping TheHand’s Top 10 Questions brochure is now available on Time Around Team andhelpinghand.org.au/ informed the Helping HandProject Aged Care website: by Forgotten Australians / Care Leavers wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Brochure-FA-ten-questions. pdf involved in this project. A further resource published recently by Helping This guide will Forgotten Hand, Practical Tipshelp for Aged Care Providers to Engage Australians / Care Leavers to ask the with Forgotten Australians, will help aged care providers engage with dignity and respect with Forgotten questions that are important to them.Australians/ Care Leavers. It is a wonderful and useful companion to the It may be useful for: Top Ten Brochure, and is also available to download from the http://helpinghand.org.au/about-us/diversity• website: Comparing services between inclusion/forgotten-australians/
It is your right to ask
residential aged care homes
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