A New Era for Aged Care
A New Era for Aged Care
2 Formal CPD Points
The spread of COVID throughout Australia has impacted the Aged Care industry disproportionately to other sectors with up to two thirds of COVID cases in the current wave in Aged Care Facilities. This mirrors the experience in the second wave in Victoria where ACF comprised a very large percentage of super spreader sites, infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Aged care homes across Australia are facing lockdowns and staff shortages as COVID- 19 exposure impacts hundreds of facilities. At time of writing, data shows 495 aged care homes across the country have active outbreaks. There are now 1,370 residents who have the virus along with 1,835 staff. It is expected that these figures will grow exponentially until the current wave is brought under control.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care had already identified a system in crisis prior to the pandemic, with many facilities and systems suffering from staff shortages, lack of resources, significant maintenance deficits, and inadequate management systems.
Now the situation is even more complex with aged care operators and their staff trying to manage day-to-day issues with their residents while at the same time trying to keep the virus at bay.
As the sector looks to immediate solutions in terms of staffing, PPE and protecting residents from infection there is an urgent need for long term solutions that will support the industry?
Can we look ahead to chart the future for a new era of aged care management and design characterised by satisfying resident needs for healthy air, well-being, and protection against respiratory disease.
Join our panel of aged care management and design experts at this webinar to be held on February 23.
Our panel will look at the some of the key issues impacting the Aged Care industry and immediate steps that can be taken by Aged Care Managers and designers to mitigate the spread of Covid including:
Principles behind the spread of aerosols and respiratory diseases and the influence of indoor air quality on wellbeing and specifically on the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
Natural and mechanical ventilation, filtration and air purification.
Fall-back ventilation systems to guarantee an acceptable level of ventilation.
Design of facilities and open space/communal areas to minimise infection.
Design of rooms and outdoor access to allow a facility to introduce cohorting.
Cleaning regime and touchpoints.
Sign-in and security control for staff and visitors
Infection control management and donning and doffing stations for PPE.
Staffing and staff rooms, eating, drinking and amenities for staff on site.
Meal and other common services for residents.
Meet the Experts
Sara Blunt | Chief Executive Officer, Kalyra Communities
Sara is the CEO of Kalyra providing accommodation, care and services to live life to the full. Chair, SA Innovation Hub, a community of practice of quality aged care providers with an innovation focus and past Chair, Aged and Community Services Australia, the national peak body for Not For Profit community focused organizations for four years over the Royal Commission and Covid Pandemic. Sara’s background includes business, nursing, military, regulation, hospitals, remote services and more recently aged care. Her experience spans local, interstate and overseas health and community service including UN Operation Restore Hope, as an ADC to two Governors of South Australia and in not for profit sector. Sara has a passion in providing older people with the means to live well and enjoy life.
Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska | Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Lidia is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia; the Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH) at QUT, a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Air Quality and Health; a Co- Director in Australia for the Australia – China Centre for Air Quality Science and Management (ACC-AQSM); an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Environmental and Climate Research (ECI), at the Jinan University, Guangzhou, China; and a Vice- Chancellor Fellow, Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), University of Surrey, United Kingdom. She conducts fundamental and applied research in the interdisciplinary field of air quality and its impact on human health and the environment, with a specific focus on science of airborne particulate matter. She is an author of over 950 journal papers, book chapters and conference papers. She has also been involved at the executive level with a number of relevant national and international professional bodies and has been acting as an advisor to the WHO.
Patrick Chambers | Stantec
Patrick is the Australian Mechanical Discipline Leader for the AZN Stantec Buildings team and brings technical expertise from a diverse range of projects, sectors, and geographies. His experience covers technical mechanical design in buildings, building physics and urban sustainability initiatives. Patrick has championed research surround novel approaches to the challenge of indoor air quality and is seen as a thought leader on the subject of ventilation systems and air quality. He has written widely on the subject including an article ( Nov 2020) for the Property Council of Australia….” Innovative Ideas to enhance Air Quality ” and presented on airborne transmission on Coronavirus with buildings for AIRAH ( Sept 2020), Australian Healthcare Week ( Feb 2021) and the European Healthcare Design Congress ( June 2021).
Professor Geoff Hanmer | ARINA
Geoff is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the University of Adelaide, an Honorary Professional Fellow at UTS and the Managing Director of ARINA, an architectural consultancy. Geoff is a registered architect and a writer on construction and buildings both contemporary and historical. He is a member of the ICC NEMA Pandemic Taskforce and has recently appeared on ABC-TV, The Project and A Current Affair speaking about ventilation and COVID-19. Articles on ventilation that he jointly authored for ‘The Conversation’with Professor Bruce Milthorpe of UTS have been widely read around the world. He is now working with several clients on practical pandemic mitigation strategies.
CPD Learning Outcomes - at the conclusion of this webinar attendees will be able to:
1. List 3 important design considerations in aged care accommodation
1.2 Design: Project Briefing
2. Explain how respiratory disease spreads in aged care facilities and describe 2 types of systems that can improve indoor air quality.
5.2 Documentation: Detailed Design
3. List 3 recommendations from the recent Royal Commission in Aged Care that will influence design of Aged Care facilities
3.4 Design: Conceptual Design
4. What is the Australian Standard for Access and Mobility and what are it's guidelines. Provide some examples of provisions that apply
3.4 Design: Conceptual Design
