The recent interim report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has highlighted the complexity that some people experience when trying to access aged care services.
As part of the Aged Care Navigator trial COTA Queensland’s Project Officer for Community and Stakeholder Engagement Paul Gabbert has been working with the Bundaberg community to trial a range of approaches to access aged care supports.
This includes training a team of peer volunteers who provide small group information sessions about the basics of navigating the aged care system, seminars to larger groups in conjunction with Aged and Disability Advocacy (ADA) Australia and outreach to groups that often miss out on information.
Research for the project identified that older men especially those who have worked in rural industries don’t access aged care services. In response to this older men’s groups are part of the target for the project.
Paul recently met up with the Bargara Men’s Shed who hosted an outreach information session. One of the participants remarked ‘there’s a lot more to aged care than I realised’.
‘These sessions are informal and a great way to share information and work through some of the complexities and challenges one might have when trying to access aged care and support services’ Paul said.
