Melb Town Hall
2018 Awards at Melbourne Town Hall
2018 Award Winners
Nick Ryan CEO Australian Aged Care Quality Agency, Ilsa Hampton CEO Meaningful Ageing and the winning team from Catholic Healthcare Community Care
2018 Highly Commended
Meaningful Ageing board chair Ross Low and CEO Ilsa Hampton with Highly Commended recipients from Catholic Care of the Aged Port Macquarie
2018 Highly Commended
Meaningful Ageing board chair Ross Low, CEO Ilsa Hampton with recipients of the Highly Commended award from Villa Maria Catholic Homes
Meaningful Ageing Australia Quality Practice Awards
Applications are now closed. Finalists will be announced in August.
Download the application here.
Contact admin@meaningfulage.org.au for further details.
Win $1000 towards spiritual care in your organisation, and showcase your leadership to the aged care sector!
Due to COVID, our 2021 awards presentation has been postponed to a celebration event in early December. Watch this space for further details.
Sponsored by:
More information
The Meaningful Ageing Australia Quality Practice Awards recognise innovation and excellence in the spiritual care of older people.
Our Awards recognise organisations who:
- Actively develop and promote organisation-wide quality practice in pastoral and/or spiritual support of older people
- Have developed, implemented and evaluated innovative programs to promote and/or improve spiritual care of older people in the organisation or community
- Want to be recognised for their innovation and celebrate their achievements
Current Meaningful Ageing Australia member organisations are eligible to nominate for the Award.
Judging is by an independent panel and all applications are de-identified.
Want to know more? Here are the questions our applicants respond to:
| a) Describe your pastoral/spiritual care initiative including commencement date and, if applicable, end date (noting 12 month minimum) (max. 500 words) |
| b) How does your initiative promote meaningful ageing? (max. 500 words) |
| c) Please describe how your initiative aligns with the National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care. (max. 500 words) |
| d) How many people directly benefit from your initiative every month? |
| e) Describe the people whom have benefited from your initiative. (max. 200 words) |
| f) What did you learn in the process of implementing and evaluating this initiative? (250–350 words) |
| g) What is your evidence of positive outcomes from your quality pastoral/spiritual care initiative? (250–350 words) |
| h) How will your initiative be sustained in your organisation/service/group? (up to 200 words) |
Previous Awards
2018 Winner
Community based spiritual care program wins national award
Catholic Healthcare’s Community Services spiritual care program has been recognised in Meaningful Ageing Australia’s national awards last night.
The Quality in Pastoral and Spiritual Practice Awards celebrate organisations who can demonstrate a sustained and effective program or project that meets the spiritual needs of older people.
“These awards come at a critical time when the Australian community is wondering how well we are caring for their loved ones,” commented Meaningful Ageing Australia CEO Ilsa Hampton. “This winning spiritual care program shows that personalised, thoughtful and compassionate presence can be successfully offered to enable meaningful ageing in the lives of clients in the community.”
In this program, the Pastoral Care Coordinator offers individual support, helping the client find purpose and meaning in life by being present with the individual to understand their unique life journey. This helps to affirm the client and build their sense of worth, self esteem and self value. The client is offered an opportunity to express their wishes, needs and hopes for ageing well. The Pastoral Care Coordinator works with other team members, case managers, nurses, and external support network of medical professionals for the holistic care of the client.
The finalists were chosen through a strict process of de-identification and judging by an independent panel coming from three states. The judges included Maureen Ward, representing older people; Cynthia Payne, formerly CEO SummitCare; Richard Gray, Senior Aged Care Advisor Catholic Health Australia and Dr Bruce Rumbold, La Trobe University.
Prime Super are the major supporter of the Meaningful Ageing Awards. CEO Lachlan Baird commented, “Prime Super is proud to support this Award and the important contribution it makes to recognising organisations dedicated to providing high quality pastoral and spiritual care for older people.”
The winning spiritual care program includes:
– Individual pastoral care visits offering the presence of spiritual support
– Connection to local faith community leader
– Connection to pastoral care volunteers
– Referral for Social support within their program
– Referral for Social support by volunteers
– Supply of spiritual resources, e.g. rosary beads, comfort cross
– Supply of spiritual learning tools, e.g. Readings, Spiritual booklets, online resources
– Engagement in day-centre community activity, e.g. Community Choir
– Hospital visits
– Visits to a residential care home when in respite or in transition to permanent care
– Grief support when losing a relative or pet
– Spiritual and emotional support during health crises
– Prayers
– Reflections and discussions of spiritual issues, e.g. meaning and purpose
The program has been evaluated every year and continues show strong support from clients.
The winning organisation was recognised by Nick Ryan, CEO Australian Aged Care Quality Agency at a formal presentation and celebration dinner at Melbourne Town Hall. Catholic Healthcare Community Services received $1000 towards pastoral and spiritual care in their organisation and a Meaningful Ageing publication will follow that enables others to emulate their approach.
Other 2018 place holders:
Villa Maria Catholic Homes – highly commended
Catholic Care of the Aged Port Macquarie – highly commended
2016 Winner
Carrington (NSW) set up a reminiscence program in 2011 where senior students are coached in getting alongside residents to really listen to their life stories over a 3 month period. Families, students and residents all benefit from the process and the final product – a memento of the older person’s life. Read more here.
Copies of the published reminiscence program are now available for you to support implementation in your organisation. Click the link to order the Intergenerational Reminiscence: a leader’s guide for aged care organisations and secondary schools.
Finalists:
Villa Maria (Catholic Healthcare, NSW) – highly commended
Peninsula Villages (NSW) – highly commended
Bethanie (WA)
IRT Kangara Waters (NSW)
Salvation Army Aged Care Plus (NSW/ACT)
2015 Winner
Churches of Christ Care Queensland were our inaugural award winner for their dementia-specific Christian worship service project. Read more here.
Baptcare Vic/Tas was the 2015 finalist.