As part of the Aged Care Reforms, aged care organisations are required to support Consumer Advisory Bodies- residents who work directly with the organisation providing feedback- the aim being to give consumers a voice. But is that enough and how do we step beyond simple feedback to enable people living in residential care to drive real change and innovation and have a voice that is heard.
BaptistCare has committed to driving the consumer voice to the next level. It has established both regional and national consumer advisory bodies- groups of older people which meet regularly with senior management. Consumers have also been enabled to form working groups where they are themselves writing a new resident handbook, policies around food and dining and pets living in our communities and also developing education for staff on loneliness and supporting a transition to care for people new to our homes.
Consumers are now discussing opportunities around consumer driven audits-this being important given they are the true subject matter experts. Consumers feed information to their own residential communities seeking input from them to enable true representation of our communities.
Consumer Advisory Bodies as BaptistCare enables, demonstrates that consumers be the first point of reference in all we do as we together develop service delivery. BaptistCare Consumer Advisory Bodies are a place for older people to bring concerns, but also to bring ideas, suggestions and most importantly add their voice to what their experience is and most importantly what they would like it to be.