Your Aged Care Update # 22/24
Notable dates
Notable dates
Webinar: Vaccinations and preparing for outbreaks
20 June
Aged Care Reforms Sector Pulse Survey
Closes 21 June
Quality Indicators for in-home aged care
Closes 9 July
Sector news
Cost data collections for residential aged care and Support at Home
The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) is running aged care cost data collections from June 2024. This will inform pricing advice to the Australian Government.
Residential aged care cost collection 2024
IHACPA wants to increase the number of participants from 2023 and analyse target areas.
This will improve IHACPA's understanding of care-related administration costs, allied health, indirect care time and respite services.
Register your interest to participate or get an information pack.
Support at Home cost collection 2024
This builds on data collected in the Support at Home Costing Study in 2023. Extra information on cost and activity will be collected to develop the existing data.
Register your interest to participate in the Support at Home aged care cost collection.
Residential care
Changes to 24/7 registered nurse reporting from 1 July
We are making changes to the monthly 24/7 registered nurse (RN) report in the Government Provider Management System (GPMS).
From 1 July, the report will collect more information about what arrangements are in place when an RN is not available. This will better support the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s monitoring and compliance activities about the 24/7 RN responsibility. It will also reduce the need for them to ask you for more information.
There will be single select drop-down menus for each question to help reduce the time you need to complete the report.
For more information:
Section 6.4.4 of the Care minutes and 24/7 registered nurse responsibility guide
24/7 registered nurse reporting – training video
Allocation of places to people starts July 2025
We’re working to give people more choice over aged care providers.
When the new Aged Care Act is in place, all residential aged care providers will no longer hold an allocation of residential places (bed licenses).
Providers will be supported with transitional arrangements. Bed-ready providers who do not have places allocated, can apply for care places through a non-competitive process. You can submit an Intention to Develop about projects that are not yet bed-ready, and need places before July 2025.
Providers need to write off any bed licenses on balance sheets before the new arrangements begin.
Learn more about Places-to-people-embedding-choice-in-residential-aged-care.
Winter vaccines reminder
COVID-19 vaccination rates in residential aged care remain low. Vaccination is the best defence in reducing the risk of serious illness, hospitalisation and death for COVID-19 and influenza.
COVID-19 vaccinations are free and recommended every 12 months for people aged 65 and over and every 6 months for people aged 75 and over.
Influenza vaccines are also free for people aged 65 years or over. Both vaccines can be administered at the same time.
Residential aged care homes are responsible for making sure residents can get the recommended dose as soon as they are eligible.
For help with vaccinations you can:
contact your Primary Health Network
call the Vaccine Operations Centre on 1800 318 208
For more information on vaccinations for residential aged care.
In-home care
Translated resource: Home care contract checklist
The Council of the Ageing Northern Territory (Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care Northern Territory) is offering its aged care contract checklist in 14 languages.
The free checklist helps people understand their rights and responsibilities when signing a contract for their home care package services and support.
We encourage aged care providers to share the checklist with culturally and linguistically diverse older people, families and carers.
Offering translated resources like this makes your services more culturally inclusive, which is required to meet the Aged Care Quality Standards.
If you need the checklist in a language not currently available, contact Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care Northern Territory on 08 8941 1004 to arrange a free translation.
Workforce
Webinar: Delivering palliative care in aged care
Join a webinar for people working in aged care on delivering high-quality, person-centred palliative care.
When: Tuesday 25 June, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm (AEST).
Build your skills and confidence in caring for people at the end of life.
Learn about palliative care training opportunities designed for aged care and ask questions of a panel of experts from:
End of Life Directions for Aged Care
Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach
Palliative Aged Care Outcomes Program.
Webinar: Helping culturally diverse people overcome social isolation
The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing (Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care Victoria) is hosting a free webinar for people working in the aged care sector.
The webinar will provide information on the Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme, digital literacy and access for older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
When: Tuesday 25 June at 2:00 pm (AEST)
This webinar is part of the interactive series Cultural Diversity in Ageing 2023-2024 and may assist providers to meet aged care quality standards. For nurses, it may be counted as continuing professional development for registration.
Register for the webinar now.
You can watch recordings of previous webinars from this series for free, anytime.
Aged care cultural inclusion resources
The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing (Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care Victoria) is offering a free Resources Partnership Program for aged care providers.
The program will support you to include diversity resources in your learning management systems, learning and development programs and internal communication campaigns. This will help make your services more culturally inclusive, which is required to meet the Aged Care Quality Standards.
The Resources Partnership Program is open to all Australian Government funded aged care organisations.
For more information visit Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing.
Ageing, Wellness and Diversity Expo, South Australia
Multicultural Aged Care (Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care South Australia) invites people working in aged care to the Ageing, Wellness and Diversity Expo in South Australia on 20 June 2024.
The Expo is free to attend and will include guest speakers, information booths, cultural performances, interactive art displays and food stalls.
For more information visit Multicultural Aged Care or contact Multicultural Aged Care on 08 8241 9900.