Huge need for aged care workers in Qld



By Michael Lund

WHO would have thought social media skills would be an attractive trait for those hoping to work in the aged care industry.

The not-for-profit group PresCare says it will take on more than 200 new staff over the next two years and Corporate Services executive manager David Green says those who use technology such as Facebook and other social media in their everyday life will go to the top of the list.

An arm of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, PresCare is one of the longest-established aged care organisations in the state and provides residential, community in-home and disability services.

Candidates also need a passion for aged care along with all the other traditional skills involved in looking after others, but Mr Green says carers need to be tech savvy.

“For example, community care workers will be filing clinical information from their car on secure mobile networks rather than paperwork back at the office,” he says.

That’s partly because the majority of older people in Australia prefer to live at home and access extra care. Less than 10 per cent of the over-65s live in any aged care or residential facility.

Aged Care Queensland says in addition to social media, today’s aged care workers is dealing with an increasing amount of IT equipment.

Aged Care Queensland says there will be a 150 per cent increase in demand for care over the next 40 years. By 2050 it is estimated about 8 per cent of the population – some 2.5 million people – will be receiving aged care.

At present, about a million people aged 65 and over receive some form of subsidised aged care.

Government incentives are provided to encourage training of new staff – including Certificate III and IV training.

ACQI chief executive Nick Ryan says more needs to be done.

“We would expect within the next eight years that there will be a 14.1 per cent increase in residential aged care staff that would be personal care workers, managers and medical care staff,” he says. “However, the increase in demand will be 56.8 per cent.”

“The supply for additional staff will be less than a quarter of the increasing demand,” Mr Ryan says.

PresCare says it is plans to employ an extra 150 staff members within two years to add to its workforce of 800. It also needs an extra 80 staff within six months in community care services under a $6 million federal government funding package to increase PresCare’s in-home aged care services by 40 per cent.

Mr Green says the organisation is looking for community care workers and assistant nurses in residential care.

Applications from younger people who want to work in aged care have increased by about 30 per cent in the past two years.

“Aged care is no longer the poor cousin of health care,” Green says. “Aged care is now a profession in its own right.”

Demi Mason-Smith, 16, is an assistant in nursing at the organisation’s Vela residential care facility at Carina, in Brisbane’s southeast. She says she loves caring for the residents as she feels she is giving something back to the community.

“(It’s) the contact with the residents, and in particular I enjoy listening to their stories about life care village,” she says.

One of those she cares for is 101-year-old resident Eunice Bowmaker who says she appreciates the extra help from all the care staff.

“(They are) very important and necessary and they do it really well,” she says. “I appreciate all their caring and they are very helpful. It’s the next best thing to being at home.”

Aged Care Queensland says there is increasing demand for people across a range of positions with particular shortages in registered nurses and allied health professionals including occupational therapists and physiotherapists. The organisation’s Nick Ryan acknowledges that pay is an issue that needs to be looked at.

“We’re not saying that the work isn’t rewarding,” he says. “We’re saying that the pay and benefits that it ought to attract are not being funded by the Government.”

Some reform of the aged care sector is being considered by the Federal Government but Mr Ryan still believes it is an attractive career option, or vocation, as he calls it.

“People who work in aged care have a high degree of loyalty to the work that they do and to the older Australians that they look after,” he says.

“So while we’re critical of funding for aged care, we acknowledge the commitment of government in funding for training and vocational education.”

Ageing numbers on the rise

AUSTRALIA’S TOTAL population is projected to increase over the next few decades and the number and proportion of older people in the population is increasing.

Latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that the 2.7 million Australians aged 65 years in 2006 represented about 13 per cent of the total population.

By 2036, numbers are expected to increase to 6.3 million or 24 per cent of the total population. The highest concentrations of people aged 65 years and over were located mainly in the coastal areas in the eastern states of Australia.

Of the 10 statistical local areas with the highest proportions of older people, nine were coastal locations, mainly in Queensland – the highest in Queensland being Bribie Island, with 30 per cent of the population aged 65 years and over.

Aged Care Queensland says Commonwealth and state/territory expenditure on aged care totalled $10.1 billion in 2008-09 with more than two-thirds directed to residential aged care.

The overwhelming majority of older Australians continue to live in their own homes and communities with less than 10per cent of people 65 years and over being permanent residents within a residential aged care facility.

Michael Lund is Editor of CareerOne for The Courier-Mail, July 2011