Anglicare trials Neighbourhood of Care in Western Sydney

Anglicare has commenced a trial of a multi-site neighbourhood model of care, called ‘Beacon’.

The Neighbourhoods of Care serves to support multiple sites in Western Sydney neighbourhoods, with a central hub based at its Rooty Hill Village to provide additional care to its village and community housing residents, as well as home care services to local residents in the Blacktown area, residents of Anglicare’s community housing Arista in Mt Druitt, and its Social and Wellness Centre, a day and overnight respite centre based in the village.

The project brings together the team in the neighbourhood and those supporting the projects, including new roles added including a Clinical Case Manager, and five new Neighbourhood Care Workers, in addition to the existing Anglicare Home Care team, all on site at Rooty Hill.

Cassandra Mathews, Anglicare’s Chief Executive of Seniors Living said: “We recognise the increasing needs of our residents as they age, as well as the need to attract and retain care staff to support the growing needs in our local communities.

“For a village like Rooty Hill, that may not have the same scale of larger villages, we needed to develop a model that could provide residents with the same benefits of on-site care offering provided on an expanded scale across multiple sites and the wider neighbourhood.

“Attracting and retaining home care workers is a critical challenge for our industry, and this model provides a new offering that is attractive to care workers. By bringing together a multi-skilled team into a neighbourhood team, we’re providing a better experience for our employees as they’re able to work together, collaborate, seek support from RNs on site for complex needs, as well as providing more stable hours working as a team.

“Residents at Rooty Hill have embraced the trial and they’re enjoying having the expanded hub team on site.

“The increase in village residents accessing the onsite care has been a combination of residents who had wanted care and can now access support due to our increased capacity, as well as residents who have chosen to switch providers to access our onsite team,” she said.

The funding model relies on existing home care funding streams, and factoring in potential future changes to the Support at Home Program.

“As the focus on ageing in place continues, models like these that find new ways to increase capacity by attracting new workers, improve customer experience and provide care that meets our residents ageing needs is critical. The early signs are positive, and it’s wonderful to be able to provide more care for the many residents that want to remain in their home as their needs may change,” she said.

The trial runs until April 2024.

Contact:

Lauren White, Head of Communications
lauren.white@anglicare.org.au