By Mikayla van Loon
Dwindling aged care staff numbers is nothing new with research estimates reporting that tens of thousands of workers will be required to fill the growing need by 2050.
So when the daughter of a resident in her eighties at the Walmsley Aged Care Home in Kilsyth heard that six staff members across both leadership and lifestyle roles were leaving rather abruptly, concern was instant.
Wanting to remain anonymous due to worry of any backlash for her mother, the daughter, who we’ll call Sue, told Star Mail that all the departures of staff came unexpectedly.
These included three members of the lifestyle team and the community development manager in March, and the general manager in April, all effective within a day or two of a letter being sent to advise residents, staff and family of their resignations.
In a response from Australian Unity, the parent company of the home, on Thursday 8 May, a spokesperson said the reasons for staff leaving included “personal resignations and an internal transfer to another Australian Unity aged care facility”.
Recruitment for a new general manager occurred from 17 April, with communication sent out advising of a newly appointed manager on 5 May, with the position filled from Monday 12 May.
At the time of speaking, Sue believed the remaining positions had yet to be filled but the Australian Unity spokesperson confirmed that recruitment had occurred for all and “all positions have since been filled”.
“Our focus at Australian Unity was on recruiting staff to fill these roles with minimal interruption to our services and care. This was achieved,” they said.
Sue said for the most part the aged care facility has been great but for those couple of months she was concerned the staff reduction was going to be “the new normal”.
“It just feels like you’re walking through a place that hasn’t got the supports in place that it needs and if they are proactively filling those (roles), please let us know what’s going on,” she said.
Choosing the aged care residential home because of its welcoming staff, lifestyle opportunities and modern facilities, Sue said what was most concerning to her was the lack of stimulation and conversation because of the reduction in staff to run activities.
“I’m worried about her boredom and her loneliness and her lack of stimulation, to be quite honest,” she said.
“They’ve still got their half an hour physical group, they’ve got a walking group, they’ve got bingo a couple of afternoons a week, they’ve got this plan still in place, but the core, relationships and the people, the motivating staff, the ones that were all working there for last year that mum’s been there, are gone.
“You’re just trying to get your head around, ‘well, why did they leave? What’s happening?’ and it creates an element of mistrust now about the facility that mum’s in.”
Australian Unity responded to questions about the activity program, stating there were no changes to the regular running of its daily schedule.
“During this period, there was no reduction in planned activities for Walmsley residents,” the spokesperson said.
“The lifestyle program has continued without interruption, delivered by local and central teams working together to support resident wellbeing.”
Aged care workers, whether management, nurses or lifestyle staff, typically provide a sense of comfort, regularity and connection for residents, so Sue said during the period of change, it was unsettling for her mum who had established relationships with the staff.
“They’re all just in a place of uncertainty and not knowing what’s going on and I think that’s really unfair to have these people just leave abruptly without goodbyes,” she said.
“To just have an official email to all of us to say, ‘oh, so and so’s resigned. So and so is leaving. So and so is leaving’.”
Walmsley employs 180 staff across its facility to care for up to 120 residents.
“Australian Unity acknowledges concerns regarding staffing and lifestyle services at our Walmsley Aged Care Facility,” the spokesperson said.
“We appreciate the unease felt by some residents and their families following recent changes to our staff team.”
Despite the relatively quick resolution to staff resignations at Walmsley, staffing challenges in the aged care sector have been seen across the country for a number of years, which is only predicted to increase.
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) identified in 2021, through its report Duty of care: Meeting the aged care workforce challenge, that Australia was facing a shortage of at least 110,000 direct aged-care workers within the next decade unless urgent action was taken.
“We will need at least 17,000 more direct aged-care workers each year in the next decade just to meet basic standards of care,” CEDA chief economist Jarrod Ball said at the time.
This projection takes into account the longer life expectancy of Australians with the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety highlighting that the number of Australians aged 85 years and over will increase from 515,700 in 2018–19 to more than 1.5 million by 2058.
The most recently conducted Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare noted, as at March 2023, over 40,000 vacancies were needing to be filled across nursing, personal care and clinical care manager positions.
“Across all service care types, the main challenges in recruiting employees were the lack of suitable applicants, competition for staff with other providers or industries, and applicants not having suitable qualifications or skills,” the survey summary reads.
Australian Unity’s residential aged care portfolio is said to employ over 2000 people and recruits approximately 600 new team members each year but not without considerable difficulty.
“Staff turnover in the aged care sector is well documented and remains an ongoing challenge for the industry.
“As a result, we continue to invest in workforce planning and support to maintain high standards of care throughout staffing transitions.”
