Happy Autumn everyone!
As we enjoy the changing seasons and colours of our wonderful New England, we are starting to experience colder days (and nights) and warmer food! We have now changed to our winter menu which will see us exchange the salads for your favourite winter tummy warmers.
We have just been given the good news that our current federal funding contract will be extended from July 2020 through to June 2022 which allows us to build on our stability and focus on the future without immediate concern for our funding security. This is a great relief.
In February we were visited by Assessors from the Aged Care Quality & Safety Commission who reviewed our operations from top to bottom. Thank you for those volunteers and clients who spoke to the assessors and provided your personal opinions about our service.
There is currently a set of 18 Aged Care Standards that we need to meet and it was determined that we are meeting every one of these standards which is an excellent achievement by all the team here, the committee and our volunteers – THANK YOU!
These standards will be superseded at the end of June which means we will be reviewing all our documentation and processes to ensure we are meeting the new standards into the future. As referred to in the previous newsletter, the new Aged Care Standards are very much focused on the client and ensuring that each individual client has their voice heard and that services are planned with them to suit their individual needs.
It may seem that there is a little too much paperwork involved in just getting a meal delivered, however it is so important that we know what each clients’ individual circumstances are so that we can provide an appropriate service on the days that it is needed.
Thank you also to the volunteers who have been very patient with us chasing up file documentation which was one of the directives from the Assessors. We appreciate this will be an ongoing process and will continue to work with you to close any gaps in our documentation.
Kerryn Williams
Manager