Carol Altmann – The Terrier

This time last week, this page pushed a boat from the shore in the hope of raising $5000 to fund a court challenge against the Lyndoch Living board.

Not only did we meet that goal within two hours – we have more than doubled it.

Online and offline donations now sit at $10,570 (the fundraiser closes at midnight tonight).

Thankyou.

Thankyou to every single person who donated whatever they could afford to help.

Some people donated five or ten dollars, some donated two hundred or five hundred, but every person donated with the same sense of purpose: to bring the community back to the heart of Lyndoch.

Every cent of this Lyndoch fighting fund will go toward that goal.

The funds will shortly be transferred to a trust account with a legal firm and will be used to secure a barrister who is the best in this field of law.

The barrister will provide an expert legal opinion on whether the current Lyndoch board – collectively and individually – have failed in their duty to uphold the original spirit and purpose of Lyndoch aged care, which was started by the community more than 60 years ago.

This failure includes the rejection of all general membership applications these past two years.

It’s a challenge that, we believe, will result in a hearing in either the County or Supreme Court, and this is the first step.

We have been fighting this battle for accountability and transparency for more than two years, in fact it is almost two years to the day since a group of concerned people met with local federal MP Dan Tehan to express their serious concerns about Lyndoch.

Those concerns, in the past 12 months, have only escalated.

But now the community has spoken.

It is no longer waiting for the cavalry to arrive.

It IS the cavalry.

I will keep you informed every step of the way as this challenge unfolds but for tonight, I want to say thankyou.

Thankyou to every person who has had the courage to stand up for Lyndoch and to not simply sit back, stay silent, and watch.

And thankyou to everyone who has helped this terrier to keep fighting.

On we go.

[The fighting fund will remain open until midnight. You can find it here. If you would prefer direct deposit, please email me at TerrierCarol@protonmail.com]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Tonight we are launching a Go Fund Me campaign on behalf of the Warrnambool community as the first step toward taking Lyndoch Living to court.

It’s time for action.

A group of community philanthropists has been working on this legal challenge for some time and have now reached the point where a barrister can be engaged.

The crowdfunding will pay for expert advice from a barrister who is the Australian specialist in this field of the law.

The advice will consider the best way to frame a case against the Lyndoch board – both collectively and as individual board members – on whether they have failed in their duty to uphold the original spirit and purpose of Lyndoch.

This failure includes the rejection of all general membership applications by the community these past two years.

It’s time for action.

This is the first step in a legal process that will probably take place in either the County Court or the Supreme Court.

We have been ignored, silenced, pressed down, rejected and dismissed by the board for more than two years.

Enough.

We are now moving, as a community, to hold the Lyndoch board to account.

To take the first step, we need to raise $5000.

This is the equivalent of 100 people donating $50, or 1000 people donating $5 each.

Chip in what you can afford.

It reminds me of the days of buying a raffle ticket to support Lyndoch – except this time the prize is not a car, but Lyndoch itself: keeping Lyndoch a community asset, fully accountable to the community it serves.

A professional legal opinion from the best in the field is the first step.

We have already explored the next step: receiving pro bono (free of charge) support to run the case in court. We have received some very positive responses.

Now is the time for action.

Let’s go.

Click here to chip in – you can be anonymous: [https://gofund.me/170a6e8b]

[If you prefer an offline method to chip in, please contact me via DM or at Terriercarol@protonmail.com]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

An update: Warrnambool vet Dr Michael McCluskey is marching on with his VCAT challenge against Lyndoch Living and its flat rejection of members from the wider community.

He now has a date.

Following VCAT’s acceptance of Dr McCluskey’s case late last year, a mediation hearing date has now been set for a videoconference on 10 March.

Dr McCluskey is testing whether Lyndoch Living has broken anti-discrimination laws by refusing to accept his membership application on the basis of his name and gender.

He is not the only one.

I – and one other  – also lodged a complaint with VCAT on these same grounds and, just an hour ago, had an email to say the case had been accepted and a mediation hearing will be scheduled in the near future.

Mediation is the first step in the VCAT process.

As we know, the Lyndoch Living membership application form allows only for a name and address.

On this basis – a name and an address – the Lyndoch board has rejected more than 130 applications for membership over the past two years.

As a result, Lyndoch has no general members.

Along the way, it has also failed to explain why it has rejected every application, including those from health professional and academic Prof James Dunbar, Order of Australia recipient Vicki Jellie, senior South West Health care nurse Kate Sloan, former aged care director Janet Dunn and experienced local business people, such as Marie Bird.

A bucket load of applications was also received from everyday people across the community – like me – who care about the future of Lyndoch, which has been a community asset for more than 60 years.

We are not letting go of our input into a much-loved community asset that easily.

Dr McCluskey said he was extremely pleased VCAT had accepted his application.

“Allowing a broad based community representation amongst Lyndoch Living’s membership is of utmost importance in my opinion if we are to see optimal outcomes for the vulnerable and those most at need amongst us,” he said.

Dr McCluskey said he could speak from personal experience about the importance of maintaining a thriving, community-based aged care home, as he was also a carer.

“We are currently providing 24/7 in home care for an elderly family member and that experience has heightened my awareness as to how crucial it is that we have community based aged care centres operating as caring and effectively as possible.”

Aside from his VCAT challenge, Dr McCluskey is preparing to try again with his membership application for Lyndoch.

He hoped the appointment of local consultant Robert Lane to review Lyndoch’s board membership would lead to an opening up of general memberships.

“I am hoping the appointment of an outside consultant will create a fresh ‘set of eyes’ and lead to a wiser mindset within the decision makers at Lyndoch Living,” Dr McCluskey said.

The shutting out of the community from Lyndoch Living is just one thread to this complex story, but it is a critical one.

General memberships are the only bridge between Lyndoch being fully transparent, or remaining a closed shop where the board has total control and the community remains at arm’s length.

I can only come back to the question of why – why would Lyndoch not want general members?

The challenges to VCAT provide some hope of an answer and – perhaps – a change.

Another challenge will be revealed shortly. Watch this space.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Lyndoch Living will this year change how it selects its board, but there is still no sign – yet – of allowing “ordinary” members anywhere near the action.

In fact, my sense is that Lyndoch is driving methodically toward becoming a fully corporatised, tightly controlled company and ditching any real input or scrutiny from the wider community about its operations.

I say this because while Lyndoch is changing how it chooses its board members – more about that in a second – it’s in absolutely no rush to let every day people become “ordinary” members.

These pesky “ordinary” members are the ones who can keep an eye on the direction, priorities and performance of Lyndoch, ask questions and, if enough members agree, call meetings and vote on action.

They can be a powerful local voice.

They also reflect the people, or their offspring, who supported Lyndoch for decades – we must never forget that harnessing “people power” is how Lyndoch started and how it has survived for more than 60 years.

Right now, however, Lyndoch has no “ordinary” members. Zilch.

As we know, more than 115 people applied to the board last year to become “ordinary” members and nobody made it through.

It turns out, however, the Lyndoch board has been looking at itself and, a year ago, hired a local consultant – Robert Lane from SED Consulting – to suggest ways it could do things differently.

Mr Lane popped up as a surprise guest at the Lyndoch Living AGM last month, and I felt a surge of hope that maybe the breakthrough we have been waiting for, where membership would become open and accessible, had finally come.

But after meeting with Mr Lane last week to learn more, that hope is on hold because encouraging “ordinary” members was not a part of his brief.

Mr Lane was tasked with other priorities, including setting up a new board selection process that will work something like this:

– All board vacancies will be advertised;

– Nominees will go to a new committee, chaired by Mr Lane and including two board members Kane Grant and Lorraine Mielnik;

– The committee will assess these people against a range of criteria and settle on those it thinks would be best;

– The committee’s decision is then assessed by another, as-yet-unnamed, independent person.

– The final, preferred nominees will then go to a vote at the AGM.

On paper, this looks better than the closed shop of recent years, but is it? I see a gaping hole – who gets to vote for board members at the AGM?

There ARE NO general members of Lyndoch so, once again, the board votes for itself.

Around we go.

I asked Mr Lane: aren’t we right back to square one, with only seven people – the seven board members – having full control and being answerable only to themselves?

We were.

This is not Mr Lane’s fault or responsibility, as he is only tackling what he has been hired to do.

“I am trying to manage an interim process,” Mr Lane said, “(and) in the absence of members outside of the board, this is the process that will take place.”

Mr Lane agreed the situation was “not ideal”,  but stressed that he hadn’t “accepted this role to not have a positive influence”.

Well I really hope that Mr Lane’s influence can extend a lot further, because the biggest issue with the board right now is not who sits on it, but its refusal to talk to the people.

It has failed – repeatedly – to tell the community what is going on, or to answer questions.

This is why most people have no clue about the scope of the $100m masterplan, or why Lyndoch became a “Company Limited by Guarantee”, or how it will pay for its $22m medical complex, or why so many staff have left, or why it’s failing aged care standards, or why it even wants to run a medical clinic…because the board has explained none of it.

The board can change this, but does it want to?

In fact I wonder if the next step is for Lyndoch board memberships to no longer be voluntary, but paid positions to progress Lyndoch Living Ltd, rather than – in theory at least – to represent the community?

These next 12 months are critical: they will determine whether Lyndoch is fully answerable to the community, or whether – having become a Company Limited by Guarantee – that side of Lyndoch is now pure nostalgia.

Thanks for reading The Terrier. If you would like to say thanks and buy Jock a juicy bone, you can find the Tip Jar here.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Righto, off we go. Let’s pick up right where we left off, because after all I am like a dog with a bone, and so tonight I am gnawing on the many things that we still need to know about Lyndoch Living – our community owned aged care home.

If any readers hoped that I might be moving on to another issue, look away now, because I am not finished with what has been a three-year investigation into how Lyndoch has changed, who has been involved, why and whether we can soon rest easy.

I am seeing this through – it will remain the focus of The Terrier for now – and I hope you will too.

Ah but hang on, there is one issue we need to address first and that is Covid.

Covidcovidcovidcovid.

Covid, as we know, is still disrupting aged care homes right across Australia with lockdowns, Covid outbreaks, visitation restrictions, and worsening staff shortages, and all of this is having a terrible impact on those who are isolated from their loved ones.

I am sure we all understand this, but Covid is not and cannot be a reason to stop asking the hard questions of Lyndoch that still remain unanswered.

In my view, it is even more of a reason to probe deeply into our publicly owned aged care home, because the local community are the custodians and caretakers of Lyndoch and we want to know that it is operating at the very highest standards of care, trust, accountability and transparency.

This has been the battle for the past three years – longer for those who work there – and it is not over yet.

Let’s begin with the AGM that was held just over a month ago.

At that time, Chair Susan Cassidy said during the livestream that any questions from members would be taken on notice.

Were there any questions from members taken on notice? If so, what were these questions?

What were the answers?

I asked Ms Cassidy this in an email last week and, so far, have not had a reply.

If there were no questions from members, then Lyndoch – a $100 million publicly owned organisation – held its AGM without a SINGLE question being asked.

Not one.

Perhaps I am wrong and Ms Cassidy will be in touch shortly with the list of rigorous questions and answers.

Such as:

Why has Lyndoch’s equity (assets minus liabilities) progressively fallen by a staggering $28 million in just six years?

In 2015, Lyndoch’s net assets were $69 million.

Last year, they had fallen to $41 million.

We will learn more about the Lyndoch figures at the end of this month, when it reports to the charities commission, so I will write more fulsomely on this then.

For now, however, we know a big slice of Lyndoch’s spending goes on staff costs and that it has also borrowed big time to fund its $22m medical clinic.

So, how is staffing? What are the bed numbers and staff ratios?

We see shift shortages being leaked to this page all the time – so why, in this climate, is Lyndoch bleeding so many experienced staff? Has the board asked questions and read the exit interviews?

And is it correct that Lyndoch is poised to hire a bunch of nurses trained overseas in order to fill the gaps?

What about the accreditation of Lyndoch due next month – is it on track to address all of the failings exposed by the aged care commission and pass with flying colours?

My sense is that Covid will see this accreditation delayed, but that doesn’t change the need for reassurance that Lyndoch has addressed ALL of the failings in Warrnambool and at its May Noonan Hostel in Terang.

And how is the $22 million medical clinic shaping up? Is it on budget?

And are all the GPs who are currently contracted with Lyndoch until April intending to stay on or will they follow Dr Phil Hall if, as reported, he re-opens a clinic at the existing Liebig St site?

What if the GPs don’t renew their contracts? How will Lyndoch fill its ginormous, three-level medical centre and not create another Sam’s Warehouse scenario?

Another whole pile of questions also come from the surprise announcement at the AGM that consultant Robert Lane had been hired to sort out how board appointments, and I assume general membership to Lyndoch, will be handled from here.

Mr Lane said there would be an advisory committee, chaired by himself and made up of two current board members (Mr Kane Grant and Ms Lorraine Mielnik), who would assist the board with its decisions on memberships which, to date, have made no sense to anyone.

I will also be learning more about that whole process this week, so stay tuned.

So many questions…I hope you are well rested and ready.

On we go.

[Thanks for reading, and if you would like to buy Jock a juicy bone as a thankyou, you can visit the Tip Jar here: https://tinyurl.com/yckzankb]