Bethanie Recognised in WA's Inaugural LASA Excellence in Age Services Awards

The Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) Excellence in Age Services Awards recognise the achievements of organisations, teams and individuals in the age services industry. The awards are judged at the state level and highlight the outstanding contributions made to improve the quality of life of older Australians. The winners from each state progress as finalists in the national awards presented at the LASA National Congress.

The outstanding achievements of the age services industry in Western Australia were recognised at the LASA Excellence in Age Service Awards ceremony, at an industry breakfast in Perth on the 28th of August 2018. Bethanie were presented with two awards at the breakfast event, the “Individual Award” and “Team Award”.

Bethanie, is one of Western Australia’s leading not-for-profit aged care and retirement living providers, offering a continuum of high quality service from care in the home, Living Well Centres, affordable housing, serviced apartments and residential aged care across 32 locations in the Perth metropolitan area and regional Western Australia. For over 60 years Bethanie have been welcoming Western Australian seniors into a unique and caring, social and engaging environment.

Outstanding “Individual Award”

Learning and Development (L&D) Manager for Bethanie, Dannielle Phelan, won the Individual Award. This award recognised an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the age services sector, used innovation and initiative to improve the lives of older people, and delivered high quality care to the aged.

Since joining the organisation in 2016 Dannielle has initiated and delivered a large-scale learning transformation programme that has resulted in significant benefits.

Over the last year, Dannielle has radically transformed the learning environment, systems and processes at Bethanie. This new direction has improved learning outcomes, capability and knowledge retention, whilst at the same time significantly reducing the amount of time direct care staff spend attending face-to-face training courses. This has increased the amount of time staff spend with customers and improved outcomes for older people across WA.

Dannielle has made an outstanding contribution to the aged care sector in WA through initiating a successful learning management system enhancing Bethanie as a learning organisation.

Danielle was also key in creating the Perth Aged Care Learning and Development Network to share knowledge to improve the industry across different organisations and sectors.

The Bethanie team of finalists at the LASA Excellence in Age Services Awards Ceremony breakfast in Perth. (L-R) Chris How, Mandy Banks, Pele Reeve, Catherine Walker, David Harrison, Jenni Stratford, Kerry Berg, Deborah Hunt and Grace Conboy. (Absent from the Bethanie team: Rosie Barton, Dannielle Phelan and Richard Waddington)

Outstanding “Team Award”

Riversea Mosman Park won the Team Award. The team award recognised a team, working within the age services sector that created an environment that encourages workplace diversity, positive workplace culture and increased staff wellbeing through development of a service or process or has used innovation and initiative to improve the lives of older people and improve the age services experience.

The team at Riversea Mosman Park has undergone an incredible journey over the last six years, changing rapidly from what was traditionally a low care residential aged care facility, to a fully dementia specific specialised service provider.

The Bethanie dementia approach to care focuses on maximising quality of life and providing person-centred care, and consists of six key elements including wellbeing, communication, care planning, environment, education and partnerships.

The dedicated team of experienced, enthusiastic and motivated health professionals and carers at Riversea Mossman Park focus primarily on ensuring person-centred care is delivered on a daily basis. The team truly demonstrates that residential aged care can feel like home.  Family and friends are a valuable part of the team, and passionate and enthusiastic staff with the knowledge and tools make all the difference.

An example of this is using the arts to provide enriching and engaging activities for residents with dementia. In 2016 and 2017, the team at Riversea Mosman Park partnered with Agelink Theatre WA to produce two separate live stage shows in which residents were part of and the community came to watch. The first of these a music and memories show called “Some Enchanted Afternoon” as part of Dementia Awareness Month formed a research study which was featured in the Australian Journal of Dementia Care and also resulted in the team’s selection as finalists in the Asia Pacific ElderCare Awards in 2017. The event was based on music and memories and encouraged residents to share stories and celebrate their lives, enhancing wellbeing and quality of life. In addition, the team also hosts an annual ball which supports reminiscing and invites all families to attend and make wonderful memories of our residents.

Bethanie CEO Chris How comments, “This industry has so many individual and groups who deserve recognition for their dedication and passion for providing quality care for older Australians. It is wonderful to see both individual staff from Bethanie and groups being recognised on this level.”

The winners from each state progress as finalists in the national awards presented at the LASA National Congress.