Carol Altmann – The Terrier

On Friday, I deposited all the $$$ we raised to mount a legal challenge against the Lyndoch Living board into a trust account. Now, we wait.

And while we wait for the barrister’s opinion, let’s remember why this legal challenge is even necessary.

It’s necessary because, after seven decades of needing the community to survive, the seven remaining members of the Lyndoch board have decided to disconnect Lyndoch from the community, without consultation or explanation.

These seven people have become gatekeepers and, in my view, enablers.

They are not the only ones. There is a band of hand-selected enablers across Lyndoch now: carefully chosen for their willingness to oblige without question in return for…what? A salary? A promised career path? A certificate of appreciation?

Those who wouldn’t oblige, or who spoke up, or challenged, or simply decided they had had enough, are either going ….or gone. There was actually a hit list of those Lyndoch wanted out. They are all gone.

And as I write this tonight, yet another clinical leader has left.

And as I write this, I come to the end of another week where the distressing messages just keep coming in about staff shortages, care workers covering for nurses, nurses being run ragged, staff working double-shifts, being exhausted, and almost spent.

I would normally show you a screenshot of the staff shortages, but now Lyndoch is so paranoid about who is “leaking to The Terrier” (aka, letting the truth out) that staff fear text messages from Lyndoch will contain clues to try and trace them.

Staff also know – even if they no longer work at Lyndoch – that Lyndoch is watching closely to see if they comment or like a Terrier post.

The intimidation doesn’t end, it seems, even if you no longer work there.

So I will instead tell you that yesterday, 26 February, Lyndoch sent out a text saying it was, once again, “desperately in need of staff” in the dementia (Audrey Prider) and high care (Lake Lodge) wings.

In Audrey Prider, the high-care dementia wing, the shortages included four staff on two shifts, from 7am to 3.30pm and from 1.30pm til 10pm.

Audrey Prider has 45 beds and, during the day, should typically have nine staff: 1 Registered Nurse, 6 enrolled nurses and 2 care workers.

If you remove four staff from that equation, resident care suffers. Many, I am told, have to spend the day in bed as there is just not enough staff to go around.

And yet amid all of this desperation and exhaustion, we hear nothing from Lyndoch and nothing from the board.

So this, this is just one of the reasons that we are fighting back for our voice to be heard at the table. Not as board members, but as general members – from the community – who are prepared to stand up for our elderly and those who care for them.

I know for a fact the staff are reading these posts. We are here for you. We are fighting for you. And we are not giving up. #pressingon

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

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]

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Tonight I can reveal that a group of Lyndoch staff tried to alert the Lyndoch board to a looming staff crisis more than a year ago, but was ignored.

An explosive letter has emerged that was written by a group of experienced staff to the Lyndoch board on 2 April 2020 – 18 months ago.

The letter was delivered to the board via a trusted intermediary, a Warrnambool GP.

Staff are forbidden under Lyndoch policy to approach the board directly, but the authors, who represented a cross-section of Lyndoch, clearly felt they had no choice.

“It is with grave concern that we feel compelled to formally address the Board of Directors of Lyndoch Living,” the letter begins.

“Our knowledge that this direct communication may lead to employment termination must also demonstrate the gravity of our actions and the reason we undertake this anonymously,” it says.

Between them, the letter says, the authors have more than 50 years experience in aged care and they came with a warning:

“Over the last four years we have seen a significant deterioration of staff morale, and poor and highly detrimental decision making…,” they write.

“This has resulted in a very poor culture, significant stress and distress among staff, sick leave and resignations”.

Let’s just stop there for a moment.

I wish I could publish the entire letter, but Lyndoch is too litigious for me to take that risk, so what follows is my edited version of what the authors outline as their issues of major concern, the alleged causes and the request for action.

The staff tell the board that they tried to raise their concerns through the normal channels, but have got nowhere.

In fact the situation only got worse.

“Unfortunately we have met with obstruction, denial or dismissal at each point,” they write.

Either a lack of action or consequences for speaking up, meant other staff remained silent, which led to more “inappropriate and detrimental behaviour”.

The authors say they turned to two politicians for help who were alarmed by their claims and urged the staff to contact the board directly.

So they did, via a letter that could not be more direct.

They urged the board to do a “fearless review” of Lyndoch Living that would include three things:

1. Engage an independent company to undertake a cultural staff survey. (The) previous cultural review was prepared for the law firm that represents Lyndoch Living.

2. Ensure that the recommendations within the independent survey are tabled, considered and actioned by the Board;

3. Engage an independent forensic accountant to review appropriate resident related expenditure and review the current investment portfolio and commitments in line with a not-for-profit culture.

And at the end of the letter came the kicker.

The authors offered to meet with the board, to show their faces, and to step away from anonymity.

They would do this, they said, provided they could be protected from any threat to their jobs, and assured confidentiality.

This is huge.

Anybody who knows a Lyndoch worker who wants to speak up, but doesn’t, knows that the number one reason given is fear of being targeted, or losing their job.

The courageous staff behind this letter swallowed that fear because they believed if they did nothing, the situation would only deteriorate.

They decided to trust the board.

So they wrote their letter, they had it delivered via the GP and they waited for a response via the same intermediary.

And nothing happened.

They didn’t get a reply, much less an invitation to come and talk with the board in confidence.

I know the board received the letter and I know it was discussed, but it went no further.

The board stayed silent.

And the brave staff, their hearts swollen with disbelief and disappointment, felt that they were entirely on their own. They retreated back into the shadows and got on with caring for the elderly and vulnerable residents of Lyndoch.

That was 18 months ago.

I don’t know what has happened to the staff who wrote this letter, but their predicted catastrophe has come to pass.

The steady loss of experienced and dedicated staff from right across Lyndoch over the past five years has, in recent weeks, become a flood.

And still the board says, and does, nothing.

* Board members Percy Eccles and Suzanne Coulson resigned in March and May of this year. They have not been replaced.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Even South West MP Roma Britnell can’t get straight answers from the Lyndoch Living board.

The board has given short shrift to Ms Britnell’s recent questions about its blanket rejection of 115 membership applications from the community.

Its fulsome response to Ms Britnell was, wait for it, that it was “acting within the Lyndoch constitution.

End of conversation.

Ms Britnell was told nothing more.

At least the board is even handed when it comes to answering questions: it ignores everyone.

Ms Britnell, like the rest of us, learned nothing about why the applications were rejected, the criteria used, or the process followed.

We can only surmise, therefore, that there was no process or selection criteria.

It doesn’t matter that Ms Britnell, a State MP and our elected representative, was asking questions on behalf of her local constituents.

She was given zero from the board that, in theory, is also supposed to represent the community.

So if Ms Britnell can’t get an answer, what hope does someone like Warrnambool resident Margy Jackson have?

Margy, a retired school teacher, recently wrote to Lyndoch chair Sue Cassidy expressing her concerns about Lyndoch and the cutting out of the community.

Margy has had no response.

Former Deakin Professor James Dunbar and retired naval officer Jim Burke wrote to the board some months ago expressing their concerns about the viability of the $22m medical clinic being built at Lyndoch.

They have had no response.

It appears that the current board of seven volunteers – Ms Cassidy, Kane Grant, Andrew Paton, Kerry Nelson, Prof Rob Wallis, Lorraine Mielnik and Ron Page – has decided they are answerable only to themselves and the CEO.

Have they lost sight of who built and supported Lyndoch for so many decades?

Why else would the board agree to turn its back on their own community?

And why would these remaining board members (Percy Eccles and Suzanne Coulson quit earlier this year) want to be a part of such a closed shop?

Only they can answer that question.

I don’t expect any answers soon, but with Lyndoch’s staff and residential care – its core business – suffering under the board’s watch, the questions will only keep coming.