Without a clear mandate for home care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, many providers could be facing further workforce shortages in the short-term.
According to the 2020 Aged Care Workforce Census, there are around 80,000 direct care workers in home care (and 60,000 in the CHSP) supporting around one million older Australians in their homes, but the Government has so far resisted pressure to mandate the vaccination for home care workers.
Operators are only required to report their worker vaccination records to the Department of Health at an outlet level so there is no transparency on the number of home care workers that have been vaccinated nationally.
Yet operators say home care recipients are demanding that their carers be double vaccinated.
This creates a challenge for operators, who have no mandate to fall back on to support them.
We understand that some home care workers are still struggling to make bookings despite being recognised as a priority group because of the restrictions on vaccine supply.
Adding to the complexity is the fact most staff work remotely and rarely come to head office.
“Despite the fact that people working in aged care actually do have the right to go to the front of the queue, it’s still a challenge,” said Paul Ostrowski (pictured above), CEO of Care Connect.
“I have staff who want to get vaccinated. They have come to 24 hours from their Pfizer appointment, only to be called and say, ‘Your appointment is canceled. We shipped your Pfizer vaccine to Sydney.’ How do you support staff who are trying to do the right thing in those kinds of circumstances?”
Paul says he firmly believes the majority want to be vaccinated.
“We have taken the position that Care Connect is pro-vaccination. But there are those who are hesitant or have personal beliefs or other reasons that they may choose not to.”
He says the public needs better education to understand the need for vaccinations.
Care Connect is working with staff members to work through these issues, but Paul concedes there will be a small group of workers that will not want to be vaccinated.
“My message to staff has been that I want everyone to come on the journey, but I accept that some people will say, ‘I’m sorry, Paul. That’s not for me’.”
We only know of one home care provider that has fully vaccinated its field team – but has had two staff go on leave: one to wait for the Moderna vaccine and the other to be vaccinated after completing a round of IVF.
Paul sees the next couple of months as a critical transition period where providers will need to bring their workforce across the line.
“We cannot underestimate the complexity of that for the home care workforce, and we need to be fully focused on solving governance. Otherwise, you will be 20% off target and it becomes an almost impossible situation.”
