The Care Association of New Zealand (CANZ) and the Aged Care Association (ACA) have merged to become one large peak body representing almost 100 percent of aged residential care providers in New Zealand.
Chief executive of the Aged Care Association, Hon Tracey Martin says, “Our strength in numbers means we can use our combined influence to create the change we and older New Zealanders need, now and into the future.”
“We are also thrilled that CANZ executive director Jessica Buddendijk QSM has agreed to join the ACA board. Jessica has decades of experience in the aged care sector and the entire sector will benefit from her wisdom.”
CANZ executive director and Independent Aged Care Adviser, Jessica Buddendijk QSM says, “CANZ and ACA have worked closely together on sector issues over the last few years and both organisations recognise that a single organisation representing the whole sector will have improved benefits for members.”
“After being an executive and managing the smaller Association for many years, it is time to join forces and establish a united voice representing the aged care sector.”
The integration of ACA and CANZ takes place today.
The Minister for Seniors has announced that a fund to support older New Zealanders transfer from hospitals, to be cared for in aged residential care and the community, will continue.
Aged Care Association chief executive Tracey Martin says, “There’s no money in the Budget for older New Zealanders, so the Government has resorted to announcing the continuation of existing funds as a win.
The continuation of the current $6 million funding for another four years is an insult to the tens of thousands of older New Zealanders who need, and will need in future, aged care in this country.
It is likely that more money has been spent on expensive reports over the last decade; reports that highlight again and again how underfunded the aged care sector is, and how unprepared our society is to provide the care at least a quarter of all New Zealanders over the age of 85 will need.
And let’s be clear, Government doesn’t fund residential aged care providers, the key relationship is between the government and the individual New Zealander. It is the senior who is assessed as needing care, it is the senior who is asset and income tested, it is the senior who is recommended by a government agency to enter residential care for safety and clinical care needs.
This is who the Government is thumbing their nose at – the person who needs care, not our members, who provide the care. Our members are working as hard and as efficiently as they can to keep their doors open, to care for our elders.
If Government can’t acknowledge that positive and sustainable change can only happen if we are included, then we are all in trouble. The $6 million fund might still be there to help seniors transfer from hospital, but it is increasingly likely that there will be nowhere for them to transfer to.”
The E tū union is either being deliberately mischievous or is seriously misinformed about how aged residential care works in New Zealand, says Aged Care Association Chief Executive Hon. Tracey Martin.
The Post published a story last week based on a report titled Transparency and Corporate Tax Reforms to Improve the Efficiency of Aged Residential Care Funding, which has not been made public.
“To level public accusations based on an unreleased document, one that neither the targeted provider nor the public can scrutinise, is not only duplicitous but unethical.” says Ms Martin.
It is disappointing that E tū has chosen to spend time and money on what appears to be a flawed report, in an attempt to bully a particular provider into ceasing a change consultation process with their staff.
Without access to the full report, the Association can only respond to the comments attributed to the report’s authors and the union.
The claim that aged care providers may not be using government money appropriately is either a complete misunderstanding of how aged residential care is funded or a deliberate manipulation of the facts to push an alternative agenda.
Aged care is a complex environment, but at its core, the financial relationship is between the government agency, Health New Zealand, and the individual New Zealander who needs care.
Providers meet rigorous standards to be eligible to deliver aged residential care services to New Zealanders who are funded directly by the Crown.
The Aged Care Association had hoped for a more constructive relationship with E tū for the benefit of their members and ours, based on shared recognition that the funding model for the provision of aged care to senior New Zealanders is fundamentally broken and must be addressed with urgency.
The time and resource spent on this report would have been better directed toward advocating for an independent, cross-party taskforce (including union representation), to design a fit-for-purpose aged care funding model that delivers greater transparency for all, including everyday taxpayers.
Note to editors:
Funding for aged residential care is allocated as follows:
Aged care providers are certified by government agency HealthCert as meeting criteria to deliver specific levels of care – e.g. Rest Home, Hospital, Dementia, or Psychogeriatric care.
Certification does not entitle providers to any guaranteed funding. It simply confirms that they meet the required standards to deliver care, such as the required staff and facilities.
Providers are subject to regular audits (both scheduled and unannounced) by independent auditors approved by HealthCert.
Many of the standards audited relate directly to staffing levels, and the sector overwhelmingly respects and adheres to the voluntary safe staffing levels agreed with Government.
When a New Zealand senior is assessed by a NASC (Needs Assessment and Service Coordination) team as needing residential care, the Ministry of Social Development reviews their financial situation. If they qualify for support:
They must first contribute their own income (e.g. superannuation or assets).
The Government then tops up the difference between what they can afford and a capped amount that can be charged by any residential care provider for the provision of that care, with the capped amount set by the Director-General of Health.
The individual and their whānau choose the care provider they wish to deliver that care to them.
All financial agreements around the provision of care are between the government and the New Zealander needing care. None of our members receive a bulk grant from government or have a direct financial contract with government.
The following transcript is from a Q&A at the Prime Minister’s Breakfast on Thursday 10 April.The question was asked by Presbyterian Support Central’s CE, Joe Asghar.
ASGHAR: I’m here supporting the elders that have made New Zealand what it is today, and aged care a sector that could do so much more but needs that critical infrastructure investment that you talked about, and securing and delivering on that has been a real challenge, moving to a point of crisis where those elders are actually going to really struggle to find a place to live and that they can call home. So in your five pillar model, where do you see the aged care sector fitting, and what do you think it’s future will look like?
LUXON: We want to build out the world’s best country right, I mean that’s really our goal, I mean you look at it and say we’re bang smack in the middle of the Indo-Pacific region, we have abundant natural resources, all around the world you’re seeing grumpy populations in an age of disruption, and as a result social and democratic institutions being sort of unwound or weakened, but that’s not the case here in New Zealand, and importantly we have incredibly talented, smart people, so there should be, I start from the starting point of, there should be no excuses for why we can’t build the best small advanced country on earth period, right, let’s just start there. So then you say well how do you do that? You’ve got to get your economic engine moving, and that’s what I’ve been talking about with that five point plan, those are the five things I think we need, look at how do you create more wealth for people, how do you lift collective living standards, it’s those five pillars that I’ve talked about to drive economic productivity.
On the social space, what we actually have to deal with is the underpinning organising thought needs to be this notion of social investment and that’s what Bill English started with the theory of that under the previous National lead government but actually it never got into the bloodstream of the place and that’s why I keep saying we have to partner as three actors in civil society; government, business, community working together on all of that, we have to work hard and Louise Upston’s doing some great work on that, getting the cash out of the bureaucracy and out to community organisations that can secure better outcomes for our people whether it’s in aged care or whether it’s in a number of social services across the peace, government historically does not a good job of that. There are innovators, social entrepreneurs that are doing incredible work in our social services, tackling really difficult challenging problems, social problems, that actually have a lot of overlap. People in emergency housing also have school and housing and security but they also then have kids that are bouncing in and out of schools and are really challenged, now you’ve got to get to the root cause of what are those issues and let’s try and get some innovation into trying to deal with those problems in a different way versus carrying on doing everything we’ve done the same way for thirty years. So I think social investment becomes the model for all our social thinking and then with respect to environments about emissions reduction, you know, it’s the organising thought.
So in the aged care sector yes there are real challenges, and when you look at the, when you look at this over the last couple of years, the outlook for where it’s going and the number of beds that are coming out of the system and you get into what nurses are paid in aged care versus in the general hospital system versus the community sector, we’ve got to work our way through all those issues, so there are real challenges in aged care, and we’ve got to be able, but I think we’ve got to get again government and businesses in this case, government and community in this case, working together, on whose best to deliver and secure improved outcomes, and it’s often businesses and its often community organisations and governments got a role to play for sure, I’m not abdicating from that, but it’s just working together we’ll actually get that sorted so um yeah a lot to do in aged care. I hope you had a chance to meet with Simeon Brown our new Health Minister, I’m sure he’ll take a meeting.
Understanding the signs and symptoms of delirium in older adults.
Differentiating between delirium, dementia, and depression (the 3D’s).
Effective strategies for early recognition and management.
Promoting a multidisciplinary approach to support older adults experiencing delirium
Presenter introduction: Lesley Maskery (NP)
Lesley is a Nurse Practitioner, with over 30years experience in Older Persons’ Mental Health. She trained in the UK and worked both in hospital in-patient settings and as a Community Psychiatric Nurse. She moved to NZ in 2005, completing her Nurse Practitioner (NP) registration in 2018, and has worked within both the DHB and Aged Care sectors here in NZ.
Lesley developed an NP-led clinic model to support Aged Care facilities that were struggling to find adequate GP support and has completed audits on anti-psychotic medication use in Aged Care. Lesley has also provided teaching input to the CAP course for internationally trained nurses moving to NZ and for Aged Care facilities.
Marie has a nursing background, joined Mölnlycke in 2008, and is based in Sydney. With valuable experience as a Senior Account Manager, Marie has managed Hospital, Aged Care, Community and Wound Care portfolios. In 2023, Marie transitioned into the role of Clinical Educator, overseeing the Customised Learning virtual education platform and delivering product-based wound care education to Health Care Professionals across Australia and New Zealand.
This webinar will explore malnutrition and dehydration in aged residential care.
Key Focus Areas:
Identifying signs of malnutrition and dehydration
Ways to encourage nutritional intake in residents with decreased appetite
How best to collaborate with allied healthcare professionals and GPs
Presenter introduction: Jo Pannabecker
Jo Pannabecker is an experienced and passionate dietitian dedicated to supporting the unique nutrition needs of older adults.
Founder of Elders At My Table Ltd., Jo works alongside elders, carers, and aged care providers to create personalised, practical nutrition plans that promote health, independence, and dignity.
With a focus on making mealtimes pleasurable, safe, and empowering, Jo brings expertise, empathy, and evidence-based strategies to every table.
This webinar will explore key infection prevention and control (IPC) practices in aged residential care.
Key Focus Areas:
The relationship between organisms, infections and modes of transmission
Standard and transmission precautions to minimise infection risks
Environmental hygiene
Reporting, and documentation
Outbreak definitions and identification
Presenter introduction: Carrie Spinks
Carrie is an experienced infection prevention control consultant, holding a BSc (RN), a Master of Science (Advanced Nurse Practitioner) and a Master of Advanced Practice (Infection Prevention and Control). In addition, she has post graduate qualifications in chemotherapy, gastroenterology/endoscopy, genetics, immunisation, and Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.
As a registered nurse Carrie has experience across many healthcare settings in both Australia and the UK – where she became a Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Endoscopists. For the past 17 years she has specialised in aged care management, quality/governance and infection prevention and control.
Carrie is a full time member of the ACIPC Team as an IPC Consultant and alsofacilitates and develops aged care content for the ACIPC’s IPC Foundations (FIPC) course, ACIPC IPC Aged Care short course. Carrie is passionate about IPC and especially strengthening the aged care sector; she believes the future is bright with ongoing research, technological advances, and new knowledge bringing practice change in so many areas.
The Association intends to constitute a Feedback Forum, comprised of representation from our members who are small to medium ARC providers. The already established Large Providers Group has been a useful platform for us to understand the challenges that our large provider members are facing, while also facilitating a space for knowledge-sharing. In a similar vein, we hope that the formation of a group of our small and medium providers members will help in creating a formal platform via which they can raise their issues and help strategize policy solutions.
The objective of forming such a Group is to provide a platform for interactive dialogue between the ACA and small to medium ARC providers to:
Identify key policy and regulatory challenges that the small to medium providers face
Broaden industry voices in advocacy efforts by ensuring that feedback from small to medium providers are included in our policy submissions, discussions and other advocacy efforts
Facilitate dialogue and collaboration between members while promoting knowledge-sharing
Develop policy recommendations that are feasible for the whole sector, inclusive of size, circumstance or geographical location
The group will be facilitated by ACA, ensuring that it remains a neutral and inclusive space for all participants.
This webinar will focus on coping with mood and behaviour changes in older adults, addressing unmet needs with empathy and insight. We will explore the challenges and solutions for understanding and managing these changes, emphasizing the importance of caregiver resilience and staff well-being.
Key Focus Areas:
Identifying triggers and glimmers.
Utilising non-pharmacological approaches to enhance mood and psychological wellbeing
Communication strategies and creating a supportive, dementia-friendly environment.
Orquidea is a NZ Registered Therapeutic Recreation Specialist. She is the current president for the New Zealand Society of Diversional and Recreational Therapists Inc., and the National Therapeutic Recreation Lead for Summerset Group Holdings Ltd.
She is a national and international speaker, and a consultant in the use of models of care and support, therapeutic recreation, person centre and person lead approaches, human rights, meaningful engagement, purposeful lifestyle, complementary therapies, and non-pharmacological approaches. She has extensive experience in healthy ageing, retirement villages, aged care (dementia, hospital, rest home), community, mental health, and the disability sectors. Due to her impactful work, she has received many accolades in NZ and internationally.
She is passionate about using recreation in a meaningful and therapeutic way to enrich, optimize and enhance people’s health and wellbeing, as well as using therapeutic recreation and all that it encompasses as a prevention and rehabilitation tool. She strongly believes in supporting individual’s self-determination through meaningful experiences and person led programmes and activities that facilitate purpose, belonging and quality of life.
Her professional interest includes interprofessional, multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, interdisciplinary and collaboration, ongoing education and research, technology and innovation in therapeutic recreation, recreation as a human right, leadership.
Personal interest includes walking, swimming, networking, family time, traveling, learning, movies, spanish music, cooking, ridding a bike, hugging, listen to someone’s story, social media.
Top Strengths: Activator, Connectedness, Developer, Ideation and Positivity
Top Qualities: Authentic, Empathetic, Compassionate, Flexible, and Adaptable
Top Values: Trustworthiness, Resilience, Nurtures Growth, Creates feelings of togetherness and Strong Ethics and Standards