Your Aged Care Update # 44/24
Notable dates
Webinar: Stage 3 Award Wage Increase
18 November
Webinar: New aged care regulatory model
14 November
Webinar: 3 new staffing quality indicators
3 December
Webinar: Digital Transformation
13 November
In this issue
News about the reforms
Consultation: Funding for the new Support at Home program
We invite providers to give their feedback on funding for the new Support at Home program.
This consultation covers Chapter 4 of the Aged Care Bill 2024 and is about the funding of aged care services.
It includes Stage 2a – Funding for Support at Home program which covers subsidies, individual contributions and means testing for older people.
Stage 2b will be released later and covers the remaining Rules in Chapter 4.
This marks the second consultation stage on the Rules for the new Aged Care Act, following last month’s consultation on the Service List.
You can provide feedback via our online form.
Consultation closes on 6 December.
Sector news
How to protect people in your care from COVID-19
With the festive season quickly approaching, providers are reminded to make sure residents are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations.
This is the most important measure to protect against severe disease from COVID-19.
Vaccinations are free and recommended:
every 12 months for people aged 65 and over
every 6 months for people aged 75 and over
for adults who are severely immunocompromised.
Aged care providers are responsible for:
ensuring that residents have timely access to vaccinations and oral antivirals
maintaining effective infection prevention and control measures.
Thank you for your continued efforts and commitment to protecting the people in your care.
Read our open letter.
Webinar: Home Care Packages Program Assurance Review
We are holding a webinar for home care providers on the Home Care Packages Program Assurance Review of excluded items.
When: Tuesday 26 November, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm (AEDT).
It will discuss learnings and outcomes following the summary report. You will be able to ask questions.
Register now.
Find more information on Home Care Packages Program Assurance.
Infection Prevention and Control evaluation
We have evaluated the effectiveness of the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Lead Nurse role in residential aged care.
Our report provides valuable insights and identifies areas for improvements, including:
more targeted training
developing a support framework
improving governance to strengthen the role’s effectiveness.
We encourage you to read the evaluation report and technical paper and consider the findings.
More medicines available for 60-day prescriptions
Almost 300 Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines are now available for 60-day prescriptions.
This is helpful for people with a stable ongoing health condition. It means cost savings and less trips to the pharmacy. To check eligibility, aged care recipients need to talk to their health professional. If they are eligible, their health professional can give them an updated prescription.
Read more about cheaper medicines.
Residential care
Updated Star Ratings on the My Aged Care Website
Updated Star Ratings are available on the My Aged Care website via the ‘Find a Provider’ tool.
This update includes:
Staffing and Quality Measures ratings for April to June 2024
Residents’ Experience ratings for homes that have completed their annual survey between June and August 2024
contemporary Compliance ratings.
Find information on Star Ratings and access our resources.
You can also download the Star Ratings Improvement Manual for guidance on introducing changes to improve ratings.
Palliative care status form in 14 languages
The palliative care status form is now available in 14 languages. Approved providers of residential aged care need to use this form to ask us to determine palliative care status for a person entering permanent care.
It is available in Arabic, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Croatian, Dutch, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Macedonian, Spanish and Vietnamese. The translations are to help older people understand the form. You must complete and upload the English version to the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal.
Please use the most recent version of the form and read the privacy notice.
Workforce
Webinar: Racism and discrimination
The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing (Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care Victoria) is running a free webinar for providers.
When: Tuesday 26 November, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm (AEDT).
It will discuss racism and discrimination experienced by the diverse workforce.
This will assist services to deliver culturally inclusive care, which is a requirement of the Aged Care Quality Standards.
Register now and watch recordings of previous webinars.
Webinar series: Cultural diversity in ageing
The Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing (Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care Victoria) is running a free webinar series on cultural diversity for providers.
The series will train people working in aged care on how to engage effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
Attending sessions is counted as continuing professional development for nurses.
Making services culturally inclusive is a requirement of the Aged Care Quality Standards.
Register or find out more information.