LASA has announced the Queensland winners of the Excellence In Age Services (EIAS) Awards.
The winners are in five categories: Rising Star, Individual, Next Gen Young Leader, Organisation and Team.
Rising Star winner
Everglow Community Care‘s Wayne Crase became CEO of Everglow in 2017 and has shaped the vision and strategic direction of the company.
By inspiring and developing a strong clinical, support services and a subcontractor workforce, Everglow continues to support frail, aged people to remain at home with their community.
Crase advocated for veterans in relation to a formal handover process between the Department of Health and Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure continuity of care for veterans moving to MyAgedCare.
He also advocated for Everglow’s CALD members and clients to simply access services via MyAgedCare and for veterans to have DVA approval for more panel members offering Veteran’s Home Care services after the withdrawal of providers in North Queensland.
Individual winner
Lesley Schneider of Mercy Aged Care Services Central Queensland started with them in 1996 as a personal care attendant. She progressed to qualifying as a registered nurse before becoming the Manager of McAuley Place and on to her current position of Executive Officer/Director of Nursing.
Schneider has developed an empathetic, team-based management style that emphasises the importance of valuing each other’s contributions and recognising the inherent worth of all within the Mercy Aged Care Family, including elders and their families.
Her legacy is in the people she is leaving behind, in her nurturing of them they go on to nurture others and the industry is better and colleagues are better people and clinicians because she was a part of aged care.
Next Gen Young Leader winner
Lucy West works for Angels in Aprons, as a carer angel and a care coordinator – and when she talks about her clients, she does so with an unmatchable twinkle in her eye.
West wants to make a difference in people’s lives and gain as much knowledge as possible in order to do so. She has undertaken a Bachelor of Nursing, due for completion in September this year.
Following countless letters of positive feedback and requests from clients, support from her degree and her inherit interest in holistic client-focused care, West has been promoted to Care Coordinator with Angels in Aprons.
This role truly encapsulates her knowledge, passion and creativity that she describes as her “opportunity to give back to those that have supported her and her family and has motivated her to give aged care the service edge it requires”.
Organisation winner
Blackall RangeCare Group is a not-for-profit organisation providing in-home community care services to aged and disabled residents living on the Sunshine Coast and in the Hinterland region.
It’s a business that thrives on helping its clients live independent and purposeful lives at home, and does this by demonstrating kindness, empathy, and compassion.
When the initial COVID-19 lockdown, RangeCare needed to find a way to keep its 150 staff members employed to support its 2000 elderly and disabled clients. They provided local meal delivery services, a butcher meat and a fruit and vegetable pack, an in-home haircut and beard trimming service, and an iPad loan service including free internet and tuition. This later expanded into an in-home technology support service.
Team winner
The Footprints Recovery and the Reablement Program Team is designed to provide a holistic multidisciplinary evidence-based approach to address any decline in a person’s function or mental wellbeing that may have occurred as a result of a pandemic, including trauma informed practice and health promotion.
The additional intention of this program is to reduce the impact of social isolation and enhance social connection in a safe manner. The Recovery and Reablement Program multidisciplinary team consists of a social worker, occupational therapist and a health worker.
This intervention is designed to empower and support individuals to play a more active role in their health care adopting a wellness and reablement approach.
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