industry & reform
‘No group is funded adequately’
OPAN’s chief looks towards a
future of sustainable reform.
Craig Gear interviewed by Conor Burke
C
raig Gear recently gave a
speech about the benefits of his
organisation, the Older Persons
Advocacy Network, as well as ways in
which the aged care industry can restore
public confidence post royal commission.
Speaking to attendees at Australian
Healthcare Week, Gear laid out his plan
for the newly centralised OPAN: he wants
a “consistency of approach” as part of
the human rights perspective in the
group’s advocacy.
18 agedcareinsite.com.au
He spoke of the group’s main aim –
working on behalf of older people – and
stressed the independence of the group
from influence, government or otherwise.
Gear also discussed the importance
of putting the needs of the older person
above all else, even families, who often
need education so as to “not take
the rights of the older people as they
support them”.
Gear also spoke about the importance
of encouraging older people to stand up
for themselves and complain when need
be. He said that according to UK data,
only 4–8 per cent of older people will go
through a complaints process.
OPAN received approximately 11,500
requests for help last year and engaged
in a similar number of education sessions
with the elderly. The top five complaints
they received covered instances of abuse,
rights, finances, insufficient choice, and
unmet care and quality of care.
Gear told the audience that, in his
opinion, 90 per cent of issues OPAN dealt
with were caused by a breakdown of
communication between older people
and providers, and most cases of abuse
Gear has seen are familial – financial,
emotional and psychological.
Gear believes that the industry is not a
“fundamentally broken system”, but rather
one suffering a “crisis of confidence”.
One way to fix this lies in a mixture of
improved communication, transparency
and action on the providers’ part.
If people know what to expect from a
provider from the outset, there will be a
level of trust, Gear said.
The royal commission is “shining a
bright lens” on the sector right now, and
Gear is curious to see how they bring
together the information they’ve heard
thus far to implement improvements.
He suggested one way to improve
the sector would be to finance it better.
In response to a question from an
attendee, he said that “no group is funded
adequately”, rather they have an “okay
amount of funding”, and to do the best
job possible more money is needed.
Aged Care Insite spoke to Gear to learn
more about the future of OPAN and the
sector itself.