• Our Vision and Values
• Doing Things Differently
• Best Friends Model of Care
• The ‘Small Home’ Environment
• Continuum of Care
• Staff Education and Support

Staff Education and Support

Passionate, professional and committed – three words that describe our wonderful team.

We believe that every member of staff needs and deserves to be nurtured and developed, and encourage them to reach their potential and be the very best they can in their chosen field.

• Regular First Aid training is compulsory for all staff.
• All staff complete the Best Friends training which is the foundation of our philosophy of care.
• All caregiving staff study a set of three courses called Aged Care Education courses. These cover caregiving skills and knowledge about dementia.
• We hold regular in-service staff education sessions, sometimes from our Registered Nurse or management team, but often from outside agencies whom we welcome to share their skills and knowledge with us. These cover topics such as Abuse and Neglect, Advocacy, Civil Defence, Communication Skills, Cultural Awareness, Documentation and Care Planning, Food Safety, Health and Safety, Infection Control, Restraint Minimisation, Safe Transferring, and Stress and Grief.
• Non Violent Crisis Intervention Training presents our staff with skills and strategies to defuse and manage challenging behaviour.
• Selected staff are provided with in-house mentoring to assist them with personal and professional development.
• An Intercultural facilitation training programme is currently being developed under the guidance of the Office of Ethnic Affairs. This will support positive interaction and understanding between the diverse cultural groups represented within our organization.
• Annual training days are held for orientation buddies, continence resource people, home managers and weekend/shift managers, operations managers, diversional therapists and clinical managers.
• A Validation Training Programme is under development to give staff an opportunity to learn simple and practical communication techniques to improve their relationship with people who have dementia.
• A Health and Safety Award and Person of the Week Award are made on a regular basis throughout the year.