By Tanya Steele
The process of ageing and elder rights can be a complex landscape and a Healesville community centre hopes to shed some light on the process with free information forum and lunch.
The Healesville Living and Learning Centre (HLLC) will host a ‘My Aged Care’ forum on 16 August to share information and resources with the community.
Keynote speakers from several groups will be present to guide the audience through a variety of topics and services surrounding the My Aged Care system and Elder Abuse.
Shona Rimmer, the community development coordinator from HLLC said the event will feature a lot of vital information to assist prepare people in their retirement years.
“My Aged Care is the government program that delivers support for older people and it’s a great program,” she said.
Members from Elder Rights Advocacy, Eastern Community Legal and Eastern Health will be present at the forum.
“We find we get a lot of people asking for assistance here at the centre, so this will give them some insight into what is available.” Ms Rimmer said.
A representative from Elder Rights Advocacy said the talk will discuss what the agency does in terms of how they deliver free, confidential and independent advocacy.
“We are independent of all providers, we hold no allegiance to anybody. Our allegiance is the client, we are partisan to the client’s reasonable preferences in relation to what they can expect to receive and what they are legislated to receive,” they said.
“The Elder Rights Advocacy is a founding member of the older persons Advocacy Network, which is a national network of advocacy agencies in all states and territories.”
The session will also discuss the rights of people in aged care and cover topics such as Elder Abuse.
“The legislation is the baseline, so if a provider can provide more, better or greater, how wonderful is that,” the representative said.
The session can deliver vital information to people currently receiving low or level community care or home care packages or people beginning to enter the system for the first time.
The Elder Rights advocacy speaker will also cover legislation around the rights of clients and the serious incident response scheme (SIRS).
“All parties have the right to receive safe and high quality care and services. To be treated with dignity and respect, and to live without abuses and neglect are seen as those rights and whilst we talk to those rights, particularly to live without abuse and neglect,” they said.
“We will also address the serious incident response scheme brought into play by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.”
The session will be held on 16 August at the Darron Honey Centre, the forum is free and lunch is provided.
“Just come along and hear about it, it can really help you understand eligibility and criteria.” Ms Rimmer said.
Bookings are essential.
