When Rita told me she was growing old I thought she meant wearing out. Turns out she meantgrowing more curious, wanting new ways to learn and impart. With a bit of prodding, she finally told me that she thought she ...
More »Opinion
Get busy living or get busy dying: opinion
Why are so many aged care professionals pushing for older people to have a “good death”? But nota good life? What is this fascination with dying well after 3 years of living poorly as a frail olderperson, now well exposed ...
More »Workforce shortage solution is staring right at us: opinion
With Australia’s unemployment rate at its lowest level for more than 40 years, bringing the prospect of rising wages, higher inflation and climbing interest rates with it, the solution to the workforce shortage problem is staring right at all of ...
More »Why increased nurse hours aren’t enough to fix aged care: opinion
Allied Health Professions Australia strongly supports increasing the hours of registered nurses in aged care, just as we support all the recommendations of the Royal Commission. Unfortunately, cherry picking recommendations does people in aged care a disservice. A single nurse ...
More »The future of telehealth in residential care: opinion
COVID-19 is seen as the catalyst for many changes to entrenched behaviours and practices across society. Of all sectors these changes have been no less in aged care. The reality is that Covid accelerated existing slowly evolving trends by a ...
More »Better pay, more training, same job: nursing homes under Labor
Residents are going to love the better meals, getting the bell answered on time and not having to gooff to hospital in the middle of the night. Staff will be over the moon about finally getting a fair-days pay, and ...
More »Nudging an ageing Australia away from retirement and aged care
It’s a while now since Dan Buettner introduced us to “blue zones" - places around the world wherepeople live longer than the rest of us. Longer lives that are also healthier and happier. These blue zones turn out to be ...
More »Zero neglect by 2030 in aged care: opinion
Could aged care strategists learn from the recent shift in climate change strategy once leadersaccepted that our lives depended on it and that we had no choice? We wondered what a strategy for changing aged care would look like if ...
More »Palliative care reimagined: the compassionate communities model
It has been suggested that the western world has lost its 'death literacy' as we increasingly look to outsource end of life care to businesses. A new public health approach to palliative care has been put forward as a compassionate alternative ...
More »Poor staffing contributes to missed care in residential aged care
The recent announcement of a Royal Commission into aged care has brought issues of the staffing levels and skill mix of residential aged care facilities into focus. Demand for aged care services is increasing due to the ageing of the ...
More »