Aged Care Pulse survey begins today

The Department of Health and Aged Care's Pulse Survey will open on Monday and run until June 14 after hearing concerns that aged care workers aren't aware of industry changes and reforms.

The twice-yearly survey is open to all aged care workers and providers, along with other providers and stakeholders that deliver technology or health-related services to aged care.

The survey is asking for views on aged care reforms; both those that have already happened, and the sector's readiness for upcoming reforms.

According to ACQSC, the results of the survey help the Department of Aged Care get a better sense of what it can do to make the process of rolling out reforms better for the sector, and what additional support it can offer.

This year the survey is asking for the first time about providers' experiences with the department's engagement officers.

The second Pulse survey, which ran in February-March last year, found respondent's main concerns were "the pace and scale of change, increasing administrative burden, ongoing uncertainty and significant workforce challenges."

Of the 1515 people who took that survey, 84 per cent were providers or worked in aged care, including 52 per cent who worked in management or administration, and 36 percent who were nurses or aged care workers.

Respondents at the working level reported that they often didn't get information about reforms.

A key theme was around workforce retention, recruitment and training, with one Victorian workforce representative organisation saying "aged care is currently an overworked and under resourced area, these constant reforms are increasingly difficult to implement given staffing levels."

As a result of these survey's results the Department of Aged Care released the aged care reform roadmap to show all the changes on the horizon in the sector until July 2025 to help plan for new reforms in the pipeline.

The survey is on the department’s Engagement Hub website – Get Involved Page from Monday.

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