Aged Care Insite Issue 96 | August-September 2016 | Seite 34

workforce

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Weather eye sharp

ged-care workers don’t get a day
off when severe weather rolls
in. Through heavy rain, strong
winds and even extreme heat, health
professionals and management must
find ways to provide the care needed and
address unexpected problems as they arise.
This was the situation Maureen Kennedy,
head of clinical and service governance
at RSL Care, faced along with her team
in 2015 when cyclone Marcia, a category
5 storm, devastated the Capricorn Coast
of Queensland and affected RSL Care’s
services. The facility – like much of the
surrounding community – was without
power for days.
Kennedy presented on managing
through such an event at the International
Federation on Ageing 13th Global
Conference, held in Brisbane in June.
Among the messages she hoped to send
to providers encountering a similar weather
event, were: never assume your plan will
go well; think quickly on your feet; and be a
problem solver.
In an interview with Aged Care Insite,
Kennedy explains the lessons RSL Care
has applied to subsequent severe weather
events and the impact they can have on
older Australians.

ACI: In your presentation, you spoke
about cyclone Marcia and the effects
it had on those living on the Capricorn
coast of Queensland. What impact did
the event have on older people in the
area in particular?

Severe storms are an extreme challenge for
any residential facility’s staff; planning ahead
and being flexible are keys to success.
Maureen Kennedy interviewed by Dallas Bastian

32 agedcareinsite.com.au

MK: The impact of a category 5
cyclone is immense. These events don’t
discriminate – the impact is destructive,
it’s severe, it’s frightening.
For those of us who are able-bodied,
it’s frightening but if I picture myself being
bed-bound, or perhaps having a cognitive
impairment, it’s much worse.
Past experiences do help. For us, each
individual case brings its own challenges.
We have disaster-management plans in
place and we’ve refined these over the
years. We test the plan at the organisational
level and sites will test their plan locall