On Tuesday March 12 Catholic Health Australia (CHA) celebrated the launch of the CHA report ‘Palliative Care in the Catholic Sector’ highlighting the extensive and excellent work Catholic Health providers are undertaking in the Palliative Care (PC) space.

On 11 February, the CHA membership came together to celebrate the launch of a suite of materials developed in response to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act (2017).The event demonstrated the continued Catholic commitment to providing excellent end of life care and celebrates an historic collaborative effort of CHA services.

On 11 February, CHA has made publically available The CHA VAD Response Taskforce Clinical Governance Recommendations. These recommendations were prepared with input from members and stakeholders across ethics, clinical practice, clinical governance, aged care, hospitals, palliative care, mission, nursing and academics. CHA would like to thank all those who have been involved in this extensive body of work. Please follow this link to access the Clinical Governance Recommendations.

The intro paragraph should be: The Morrison Government’s announcement of an additional 10,000 home care packages is another welcome step towards reducing the queue of older Australians looking to access home care services, Catholic Health Australia CEO Suzanne Greenwood has said.

Catholic Health Australia Board Chair Paul Robertson AO has paid tribute to CHA Director Don Neander, saying “Don Neander’s inclusion in the 2019 Australia Day honours list is deserving recognition for his many years of service and leadership in Catholic health and aged care.” 

Mr Neander, who lives in Queensland, was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of his service to aged welfare. That includes two years as a director on the Board of Catholic Health Australia.

Catholic Health Australia (CHA) welcomes the new Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission which commenced operation on 2 January 2019. Catholic providers of care services have supported the creation of this Commission which was a key recommendation of the Carnell-Paterson Independent Review of National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes.

While there are examples of excellent practice, the healthcare needs specific to women are too often overlooked. Historically, most medical research was conducted in men and the findings from such studies were assumed to be equally applicable to women.

Head of Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA), Dr Louise Schaper, is determined to take health care into the digital age. Twenty years ago, as an Occupational Therapy student making home visits with a bootful of garbled handwritten patient file notes, Louise couldn’t grasp why allied health wasn’t using computers to manage patient information. Today, 20 years on, she’s asking the same questions.

Lorna O’Brien’s passion for caring for those with cancer or experiencing mental illness was nurtured at a young age. Raised in Sydney, her parents managed a home for young men with mental health disability, the nursery bed for her compassion. She hopes one day to see mental health treated justly. Her own battle with cancer has provided her rich insight into challenges faced by her patients.

Catholic Health Australia’s Richard Gray, at 80 years of age, retired at the end of August having dedicated more than 22 years with CHA, firstly as Director Aged Care Services and in latter years, Senior Aged Care Advisor. Here he has penned his last article for Health Matters and takes the opportunity to look back at his 27 years immersed in peak body aged care advocacy in Canberra.