The post Can’t find your point of difference? Make it diversity. appeared first on Agility Communications.
]]>And let’s face it – everyone loves a celebration. It’s fun, it lifts spirits, it builds connection and community, and it makes us all feel better about who we, and each other, are.
There can be some really simple things you can do in your service to make those celebrations alive a vibrant for your clients. It doesn’t matter whether you have people at your service who identify with the communities that the various International Days commemorate – but of course it’s great if you do and, more likely than not, you will.
Here’s a list of some of the days you might like to think about including in your service’s program of celebrations:
A good way to plan for these days is to include your clients in discussions about what might be done. Even planning a celebration can be as much fun, and as strongly building of community, as the celebration itself.
Each of these days celebrate different people, cultures and events. They all generate their own possibilities for something to mark the day. A day that celebrates families and parents, for example, could be celebrated by people sharing photos of their own families, their own children and parents, or telling stories. Your clients’ families could be encouraged to come along and be part of this.
For a day like International Day against homophobia, bi-phobia and transphobia, you could show a film like Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.
On days that celebrate particular cultures, or commemorate important events in their history, such as Sorry Day or the beginning of Ramadan, you could bring into your service a representative of the community being marked by the day, and they could chat with clients about the history of their culture, or even just tell their own personal story as an indigenous person, a Muslim person, and so on. Imagine the stories that could be told about the thousands of years of Aboriginal history of the place at which your service is located! Foods from different cultures could be part of the day, or displays of art and music.
For something like Refugee Week, chances are that there are people using your service who have themselves come from backgrounds where they needed to flee persecution and war. Many will still have memories and stories to share. You could spend a day encouraging them to do this, find pictures and old newspaper clippings about the journeys people have made to Australia, and have them on display throughout your service. Libraries and the Internet can be great sources for this sort of archival material.
All of these celebrations provide you with the opportunity to involve the outside community in your service, too. There are community organisations that are devoted to each of the issues commemorated on these days, and many of them will be more than keen to engage with the people using your service.
The possibilities are endless – and the important thing to do is to try to think what will resonate with and connect to the people who use your service. Even though some of these days are about very serious issues, the day can still be about having fun, sharing yarns, and encouraging respect. It’s a chance to discover, and to rediscover, that, regardless of age, life and communities are full of different histories, different stories, different ways of celebrating what it means to be a person.
Agility can help you with planning these sorts of days. We can come and spend time with your staff and talk about strategies you might want to adopt for planning a celebration with your service users in a way that will be meaningful for them, and in which they can be genuinely and meaningfully included. We can also help you to get media to your event to highlight your diversity and ability to connect with community.
No one should miss out on a chance for a party, or simply to sit down and listen to someone else tell an amazing tale about an amazing past.
For more on making your service accessible to a diverse range of people see Are your aged care services inclusive and supportive of your LGBTI clients
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]]>The post Define and Manage the Customer Experience in Aged Care to Protect your Reputation appeared first on Agility Communications.
]]>In an age where client experience is easily spread across the nation and when an organisation can see its reputation go up in smoke at the push of a button; client experience, communications and marketing are closely intertwined.
Knowing three people who have recently experienced respite care I was shocked at how quickly strong, assertive and confident women and men become institutionalized.
Frightened to ask the most innocuous question, scared of being seen to rock the boat, doing without instead of asking for help.
Some examples from this admittedly small sample include;
A liked to meet her friends for coffee at 7.30 am but could not because medication was delivered at 8am. After urging from her friends she asked if she could have her medication earlier or later so that she could continue to enjoy her social activity without missing out on medication or rocking the boat. Answer, “Of course, not a problem”.
B ‘ s facility holds movies on Saturdays and Sundays. I suggested to her that she and C might like to attend. She said that it was only for the permanent residents. On questioning she clarified that there were not enough seats for them to attend. She would rather miss the movie than ask the staff to include two more seats so that they could attend.
But why do they need to be asked?
C was waiting for his medication. He also needed to use the toilet. He didn’t want to be in the toilet when his medication arrived, because he was worried that they would have to wait for him. An hour after the medication was due, he gave up and used the toilet.
That is where he was when the nurse came in with his tablets. “Where is he” she asked, “in the toilet” B replied. She went to walk in and B quickly said, “He will be a while yet” so she said I’ll come back later. A few minutes later she came back walked into the bathroom and gave C his tablets while he was sitting on the toilet.
This is not a terrible place. This is probably better than many, worse than some and similar to most.
People sell their houses to live here.
People also, (at least in my experience) are reluctant to assert themselves or even to ask the questions they want and need the answers to.
But Imagine
If both respite and permanent residents were given an orientation when they arrived, received information in a number of forms (tour, written, spoken, reminders over time) let them know about any restrictions, how to organise laundry pick up, how to find out about activities.
Imagine if it didn’t rely on their being able to ask the questions.
Imagine letting residents know that they can go out whenever and wherever they like and if they want their medication at a special time, what they would need to do. if anything.
Imagine if all staff were trained to respect the privacy and dignity of all residents. That at the very least, they knock and ask if it is OK to come in, or ideally they wait until the resident is ready.
All of these examples and they are just a very small sample speak to the client experience in aged care. They all impact on what they and their family members will tell their friends, (also ageing people or their family who are thinking about future aged services).
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]]>The post Preparing your My Aged Care Provider Portal profile appeared first on Agility Communications.
]]>In July this year aged care service providers will begin to receive electronic client referrals through the My Aged Care Provider Portal. The portal will allow clients to search for specific services and view a list of providers in their area that can supply the services they require. Clients’ decisions about which provider to choose may be partly a result of the information provided to them about providers on the portal. If you are a service provider, the portal therefore provides an opportunity for you to include information on your profile which will quickly demonstrate why consumers should choose your services over others’.
The Department of Social Services provides a fact sheet on what you should do now to prepare your registration for the portal so that you edit your organisation’s profile information when this function becomes available after 30 April. The Portal has separate search engines for Help at Home services, Aged Care Homes and Assessment. All providers who have submitted a smart form will have the contact details provided including address, phone numbers, web URL and email address listed. However, if you wish to use your profile as a marketing tool there are a number of other details that can be included to maximize the likelihood that clients will be satisfied with their visit to your portal and take the next step to visit your website or contact you directly.
For Aged Care Home providers, the Description tab of your profile has no word limit, which provides an opportunity to tell your story the way you would in an About Us section. Try to draw readers in to your Description section as though it were a narrative story, while still understanding that they may not read it through until the end. You may already have an About Us section on your website, however, before you copy and paste it into your portal profile, consider the nature of the platform. The portal provides a list of service providers that clients can choose from, meaning that they can jump from one profile to another if they do not quickly find the information they want (and need). With this in mind, it is a good idea to provide some information about the technical nature of your services or facilities early on.
You will be able to list all of the technical details of your services in the Services tab, however, as the Description tab is the default first page of the profile this is the first thing clients will see and skim over, picking out key words related to their queries. Your goal is to answer as many of their questions as possible in the shortest time. Keep in mind that people tend to find paragraphs of 1-2 sentences easer to read than blocks of text, and that headings can help people to navigate to the required information. You may find it helpful to use headings or questions in the first person such as ‘What can I expect when I partner with Agility?’ The process of writing and answering question headings may also help you to consider what questions people are likely to want answers to.
Once you are confident you have answered clients’ anticipated questions, you can consider how to include information about your philosophy or Vision and Mission. You may wish to include a separate paragraph specifically addressing this, or include snippets throughout the section.
Photo uploads are available for Aged Care Homes profiles so that potential clients can immediately see what their new home will look like. It goes without saying that high quality jpeg photos are an asset to an online profile. Choose two attractive photos of your facilities for the Description tab. There is also provision for photos of individual rooms, shared rooms and a feature photo under the Style of Accommodation section, as well as opportunities to upload documents outlining policies. The more sections you are able to complete in the Services tab, the better. If you don’t have a particular service available, listing it as ‘Unavailable’ is preferable to leaving the section incomplete.
For Home Care providers, there is less provision to market yourselves via the portal, as it simply lists contact details and services available, and even less for Assessors. However, it is worthwhile to ensure this list is as comprehensive as possible and to fully prepare your website for linking to the portal, as this is the first place clients will go to get a visual of your organisation and find out about your approach to care. If you feel less than 100% confident about linking your current website you may wish to read this article on how you can prepare your website for linking to the portal.
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]]>The post Making a decision about Aged Care accommodation – the smell of cigarette smoke is a turn off appeared first on Agility Communications.
]]>When it became necessary to find some respite care for my elderly and frail father because his carer, my mother, needed to go to hospital, I was keen to see what the process was like from the carers and aged person’s point of view.
Deciding to drop in on the most convenient nursing home to me I headed off that afternoon to get some information.
I lined up at the empty reception desk behind someone else who was waiting. After a while I asked, if they knew she was there? “No, I thought someone would be out here by now”, she responded.
So, I rang the bell on the desk and soon after, someone called out, “won’t be a minute”.
A few minutes later, a young woman came to the desk and explained that Mary would be in as soon as she finished her morning tea break. She was a nice, friendly young woman who reeked of cigarette smoke.
A little while later, Mary arrived, also reeking of cigarettes.
I explained that I was seeking respite for my father and was met with a blank stare. “Can you tell me what’s involved I asked?
With the expression and passion of a garden snail, she gave me what little information she was willing to give away. It was like pulling teeth.
With great patience I asked for more information. No top secrets, nothing personal, just cost and availability of space.
A nurse then took me on a short tour of the quite lovely premises. I left feeling that my dad would like the rooms and the beautiful views and as he would only be there a short time, he may not have the misfortune of meeting Ms. Cold Heart.
A week or so later, my father visited and said that he was happy to stay there for the time my mother was in hospital.
So, what did I think?
That, for at least some of the staff, cigarettes ranked higher than customer service or customer comfort – in a human services industry for vulnerable people – friendliness, kindness and compassion which I would expect to rank high were not in any great evidence. I was looking for a temporary solution, for many leaving a parent in a nursing home is a traumatic and difficult process. I feel for anyone who is upset and met with the sort of attitude that I received.
No need to have worried, my mother rang to tell me she had found a better alternative. House Sitters, Pet Sitters, Dependant Sitters.
And yes, you can be there is a blog in that.
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