The myHomecare Group was mentioned in The Guardian’s article ‘Home aged care staff at ‘breaking point’, as most miss out on Coalition’s $800 bonus.’
The CEO of the myHomecare Group mentions how more needs to be done as the sector is still declining.
For a summary of the article read on.
Increased Demand for Services.
Despite flaws in the Coalition’s bonus scheme, aged care workers at Australia’s largest provider are at “breaking point”.
During the pandemic, aged-care workers faced multiple problems, including increased demand for services, staff turnover, and low pay.
In part to keep workers in the sector, Labor and the Coalition have pledged to better fund aged care. This includes 80,000 new Home Care Packages and an $800 workforce bonus for aged care providers.
Stuart Miller, Chief Executive of the myHomecare Group, said turnover in the sector remains and bonuses haven’t fixed anything.
Miller said the group’s staff turnover was 30% in the past year, better than the industry average, but still challenging.
“The outcome for us is that we are having to constantly manage which clients get the level of care that they need,” he said.
“We make sure those people who have urgent needs always get met, but sometimes it means your house might not get cleaned this week, it might have to wait until next week, and that’s a really unfortunate thing for everybody.”
Miller said aged care workers had largely been forgotten in the current election campaign, despite working on the frontline.
He said the last two years had taken a huge toll on the sector and called on the government to establish a new dedicated mental health support service for aged care workers.
Without it, the company fears mass resignations across the sector.
Aged care minister Richard Colbeck says the government has released 30,000 of the 80,000 Home Care Packages it promised. The funding is being progressively released until 2023.
Coalition Bonus.
Miller said many of his workers were receiving only a fraction of the promised $800 bonus because it was only available for one kind of federally funded home care.
“All of our workers work across multiple streams so actually very few got the full $800,” he said.
Bonus payments for this sector, staffed primarily by part-timers, are calculated using a pro-rata system. That meant many workers received even less of the $800.
Government funding of $7.1m is being recognised by Colbeck’s office as a way to address the current situation.
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