Tackling the staff shortage in aged care

Looking after older generations should be priority. They are the ones who’ve served the country, raised the younger generations.

According to the 2016 census, Australia’s population is getting older and living longer. As a result, the Productivity Commission estimates that the aged care workforce will need to have grown to around 980,000 workers by 2050.

Sadly, working in aged care is seldom a lucrative job and companies in the sector often lack adequate staff.  Not only is it difficult to attract staff into the sector, but organisations also struggle to retain employees.

As Australia is a multicultural country containing many nationalities, there’s great demand to reflect this within the workforce to ensure staff are able to meet the consumers’ cultural and language needs.

It appears especially important that staff can speak the birth language of the consumers, as many older migrants revert back to their mother language as they age.

But as Australia’s aged care sector are struggling to attract staff, many organisations are looking into how they can support staff through engagement strategies and providing professional development opportunities.

Looking after our older generations should be made a priority, and the job, one that’s sought after and lucrative for its development possibilities. 

Mimmie grew up in Sweden and first came to Australia as a backpacker after high school. After travelling around the country for two years she returned to Europe and pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism in London. But the longing for Australia and the sun became too strong. After having worked for some time in the media industry, Mimmie decided to make a change and swap the news for conferences. She now gets to do what she loves the most, meeting new people and keep learning about cultures and issues while producing conferences on current topics.