Esperance Aged Care awarded $30,000 grant for new volunteer coordinator

Esperance Aged Care has been given $30,000 by Esperance Shire Council to hire a new volunteer coordinator in an urgent attempt to bolster staffing ahead of an upcoming audit. The home in WA’s Goldfields region received the last of a $150,000 community fund from mining company IGO Limited, which was donated to Council to aid with the COVID-19 pandemic; it previously was awarded $27,000 from the fund in May to refurbish and reopen a 10-bed wing. In a letter from chairperson Toni Hawkins to the shire, seen by the ABC, the 94-bed home was noted to be struggling with staff shortages amid high demand.

“COVID-19 severely impacted the retention and recruitment of volunteers in aged care. “Despite ongoing media and community publicity about the need for volunteers we have been unable to attract any significant number,” she wrote.

Esperance Aged Care, which was hit with a non-compliance notice from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission this year, is staring down an audit ahead of the expiry of its accreditation in February 2023.