Katherine Formica: “Much better than we were 6 months ago!”
4 minute read
We spoke with Katherine Formica, Nurse Unit Manager at Echuca Regional Health, about how her multidisciplinary team is preparing for the aged care reforms – and the power of structure, collaboration + sector support and development (SSD) in making it possible.
Q: What steps is your organisation taking to prepare for the new Aged Care Act on 1 November?
Last year, we set up an Aged Care Reform Working Party. The group includes our Community Services Executive, CHSP managers, direct care staff and a consumer representative. It’s been essential for helping us learn, plan and implement the changes required to be compliant.
Having Executive support has been critical. It’s helped integrate aged care reform into the wider health service and ensured the board stays informed. Our multidisciplinary team meets monthly to work through an implementation plan, sharing the workload and creating momentum.
Q: What’s been the biggest challenge so far?
Knowing where to start. Early on, there was so much information coming from all directions – updates, emails, newsflashes. It was hard to prioritise and make sense of what to do first.
Communicating the changes to our teams has also been challenging. We’ve worked carefully to avoid overwhelming people, rolling out changes slowly and collaboratively so staff feel supported.
Q: What positive changes do you expect to see once the new Act takes effect?
I’m really passionate about person-centred care. The fact that the new Act embeds this as a foundation for compliance is a big win. It reinforces that this approach should underpin everything we do.
Q: How has collaboration with sector colleagues helped you prepare?
Through our partnership with our local SSD provider, Intereach, we helped establish a local Aged Care Round Table forum. It’s been excellent for networking, sharing updates and discovering local services we hadn’t previously connected with.
And having access to knowledgeable colleagues by phone or email has been a huge support. As a manager in a smaller service, that help has made a real difference.
Q: How are you and your team feeling now?
Much better than 6 months ago! We’ve gone from feeling overwhelmed to having a clear, structured plan and sense of direction.
We already provided safe, person-centred care. Now we’ve got stronger policies, education, audits, and team support to build on that. It’s reassuring as a manager, a nurse and a future consumer of the aged care system.
Q: What’s a piece of work you’ve done to prepare for 1 November?
After attending one of the SSD Connect Alliance’s education days, we decided to start with a gap analysis of the Statement of Rights. That process helped us get a clearer understanding of the Act’s focus and has driven a lot of follow-on work:
Reviewing and updating policies
Updating education modules in our LMS
Changing audit tools and adding new content
Redesigning our CHSP telephone survey
Sourcing new staff training
Creating new nursing portfolios
Consulting with our Aboriginal Health Liaison Officer on cultural safety
Introducing regular staff check-ins
Engaging with local Single Assessment Service agencies
Developing communication plans for the service and the community
Educating our teams on all of the above.
It’s been a BIG body of work, but incredibly valuable.
Q: How has the SSD Connect Alliance supported your team?
They’ve really listened to what we need and followed up with the right resources and learning opportunities.
It’s been so beneficial. The education days helped us overcome our biggest challenge – not knowing where to begin. They gave us a starting point and helped us focus our efforts.
Having the SSD Connect Alliance’s support has saved us so much time searching for answers and training opportunities.
The Keeping You Connected newsletters are fantastic. I look for them in my inbox and read them carefully to make sure we don’t miss anything.
Without that support and guidance, we’d be months behind where we are now.
Thank you Katherine for sharing your experiences and insights.
This interview is part of our series: Preparing for the Reforms: Challenges, Wins & What’s Next, featuring aged care leaders sharing how they’re navigating change, what they’ve learned, and what’s next. Stay tuned for new interviews.