The Australian Aged Care Collaboration (AACC) has won the Association Forum’s External Campaign of the Year Award for the It’s Time to Care About Aged Care campaign.
Industry peak body Aged and Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA) accepted the award on behalf of AACC, which at the time of the campaign comprised Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA), Anglicare Australia, Baptist Care Australia, Catholic Health Australia, Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) and UnitingCare Australia.
ACCPA celebrated the award on LinkedIn, saying the campaign “succeeded in shifting the focus to systemic policy and funding failure”.
“With continued activity from February 2021 right up to the 2022 Federal Election, we successfully realised the biggest ever Government investment in aged care ($18 billion) and turned aged care into an election issue for the first time.
“Together, the AACC represent more than 1,000 organisations, responsible for 70% of the services delivered to 1.3 million Australians receiving aged care, either at home or in communal residential settings. Essential Media worked with the AACC bringing the organisations together to lead the sector and provide one strong and consistent voice,” the peak body said.
Claerwen Little, Executive Director of UnitingCare (pictured), was chair of the campaign, and described it as having been “instrumental” in keeping public attention on aged care.
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Everyone deserves quality care as they get older. All of us should be able to get quality care, with dignity, when we need it. That's why a record number of Australians named aged care as a key election issue.
“Our campaign tapped into the growing demand for change, showing that we cannot afford to keep tinkering around the edges of the system,” she said.
