St John Ambulance SA Inc. Annual Report 2020-21

COMMUNITY CARE CHAIR’S REPORT

In the last year the Community Care team, comprising dedicated staff and caring volunteers, have continued to deliver support with a focus on wellness, empowerment and meaningful connections to South Australians who are at risk of social isolation. We have adapted as required to respond to the global pandemic, health restrictions and state lockdowns from time to time to ensure our clients continued to receive tailored support during this challenging time, delivered in a safe and flexible manner. In 2020/21 our 327 volunteers contributed an amazing 12,218 hours of their time to provide individualised support to 371 clients, equating to a total volunteering value of $551,032. An example of the thoughtfulness and creativity put in to providing meaningful experiences and helping clients to achieve their goals is the visit one of our volunteers, Annie, planned for Geoffrey to hike the Mt Bold reservoir for his 99th birthday. Followed by lunch, a glass of red wine and surprise birthday cake in the Adelaide Hills, Geoffrey described it as a magical day to be remembered. We receive valuable feedback from clients and families throughout the year and as part of our annual client survey. It is a delight to read the messages of appreciation and hear of the positive impact of our Community Care volunteers and staff. This feedback is also used by our team to share best practice examples and to continue to develop our support programs to respond to clients’ needs and interests.

Our caring volunteers are critical to delivering these services and we have invested in training and support programs to support our volunteers and to complement our volunteer recruitment and retention strategies. Our volunteer appraisal survey is an important process to hear directly from our volunteers what is working well, what can be done better and how we can continue to improve our support and services. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey this year and I encourage you to continue to share your feedback. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission visited St John during the year to assess our compliance against some of the aged care standards and our COVID-19 response and recovery management. These visits are often at short notice, just 1 day’s notice on this occasion, and included interviews with some clients, staff and volunteers. We were very pleased that St John was assessed as compliant and with no specific areas identified for improvement from the Commission’s perspective. This is testament to the hard work and commitment of the Community Care team over the last few years to review, update and continuously monitor our policies, procedures, training and support programs to comply with the aged care standards that were introduced in July 2019. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety released its final report in March 2021 with the Australian Government releasing its response to this report in May 2021. Described as delivering a once in a generation reform of aged care the Government’s response is founded on the principles of respect, care and dignity. St John supports these principles and is preparing for the opportunities expected to arise from the Government’s reform initiatives. The Community Care team are supported by the Community Care Committee which includes board member Ian Walsh and external members Richard Hearn and Emma Hinchey who bring valuable experience in aged care, NDIS, community support services and governance.