Martin to be part of change

Martin Bede was a university student ‘many’ years ago when he first noticed the quaint village in North Fitzroy. Three decades later he agreed to join the OCAV Council to help guide the organisation’s future.

Already very familiar with issues around retirement and aged care as Company Secretary/General Counsel of Regis Aged Care, Martin believes he is well placed to help OCAV navigate the changes ahead for the aged care sector. He said the uncertainty around future funding from the Federal Government means aged care service providers like OCAV need to be flexible and ready to respond to any changes.

Martin believes effective governance requires people with a variety of skills, including a good understanding of commercial sustainability.

“If you want to continue providing services and attract donors you need to be able to illustrate good governance and show that the organisation uses its resources and money well,” Martin said. “I think it is a challenge for an organisation to remain sustainable and to balance that with the philosophy of care. But it is possible to do both,” Martin said.

“OCAV’s passion and commitment to the residents in the four villages and the aged care facility is unique and that is reflected in the results of various surveys involving resident and their families.”

Martin said aged care facilities, including Liscombe House, were reliant on government funding, but it seems this may change in the future and the changes could be sudden.

“It is an uncertain space that is crying out for reform and it will come because it will have to come. But there are commercial arrangements that can be considered and that’s where the different backgrounds of Council members are important. We need to be able to bring a lot of different ideas to the table to discuss and examine.”

Martin said the push within the sector to keep older people at home longer was beneficial to the community. But it means the people often have greater care needs once they reach an aged care facility. An example of this was the training of staff in order to provide dialysis to Liscombe House resident Peter Stock. Sadly Peter died on February 13 2017.

“OCAV does a great deal to meet the needs of its residents. Providing dialysis to Peter Stock was a very good example, because almost no other aged care facility would do it, but OCAV went that extra step. That required a lot of staff training, meeting regulations and making changes to accommodate Peter. But the willingness of staff and management to do this was terrific.”

Martin said many aged care services providers were considering different commercial options to try and ensure long term sustainability. Some examples of this are the provision of non-essential services that residents can choose to buy, enhancing their quality of life and providing additional resources for the provider.