Missed part 1? No worries, you can catch up here.
Our delegates found the talk on Mental Health in Aged Care to be of great significance. Health Care workers are rated amongst the top at risk occupations for mental health issues. Stress and burnout are more prevalent during pandemics and responses may be physical, mental, emotional or behavioural.
We learnt how to recognise signs of mental health issues:
Signs in the business include:
We got some great tips on supporting the psychological wellbeing of staff and common psychological hazards to eliminate from the workplace. This essentially came down to managing work demands and not overworking staff, ensuring everyone’s roles are clearly defined, change is well managed, and staff experience a positive teamwork environment with easy access to the support they need.
In the later days of the Congress, the focus shifted to innovation, technology and challenging long held beliefs. We were excited to learn about advances made overseas and we were even treated to virtual site tours of facilities!
The final Friday night of the Congress was the exciting 2020 Excellence In Age Services (EIAS) awards. Winners were acknowledged for their talent, innovation and compassionate care. The very worthy winners were:
Congratulations to you all!
The overall feeling at the end of the Congress was that while this is a time of great challenges, it’s also a brilliant shake-up for the industry, driving change, innovation and bringing out the best in people. Disruption to the norm appears to actually be resulting in some amazing ideas and rethinking that will lead to a better future for ageing Australians. We at Cater Care are always committed to innovating and improving our services, so the focus on providing an amazing ageing experience is music to our ears.
