Aged care providers must demonstrate that older people are their focus – not themselves – in order to regain trust in the community, Tom Symondson, the CEO of the Aged & Community Care Providers Association, told delegates at last week’s LEADERS SUMMIT.
After more than 200 stakeholder meetings in his six months in the job, Tom said his priority is to rebuild aged care’s broken “reputation and trust” which “hampers” the sector “at every turn”.
Tom said he aims to reposition the sector by talking about “actual care” so that when the sector speaks, through ACCPA or individually, it is believed and listened to.
He said the sector has been saying “the end is here” since 2018 but “there are still people receiving care”.
Tom said there is a perception in the community that providers are “skimming” money out of the system.
“[There is a perception that] we want to talk about ourselves and we want to improve things for providers when actually... we are here for older people. They are not here for us. All of our lives must be about them.”
Tom said he wants ACCPA and the sector talking about solutions, not just problems, and delivering unified messages. Talking about bottom lines, EBITDAs and balance sheets doesn’t play out well with the community, he added.
ACCPA was formed in 2022 through the merger of LASA, which represented For Profit and Not For Profit providers, and ACSA, which represented Not For Profits.
