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

Warrnambool vet Dr Michael McCluskey has secured a significant first step in challenging Lyndoch Living’s refusal to allow him to become a member, with VCAT accepting his case.

As reported here in early October, Dr McCluskey lodged a complaint with VCAT arguing that the decision by the Lyndoch board to reject his application was discriminatory and illegal under the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act.

VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) has since formally responded to Dr McCluskey to confirm his case has been assessed and accepted.

According to Dr McCluskey, the tribunal has also notified Lyndoch Living about its decision to hear the case.

Dr McCluskey says he has indicated to VCAT and Lyndoch Living that he is happy to attend a mediation session as the first listing of the matter.

At this stage, Dr McCluskey will attend the first listing without legal representation, which underscores the David v Goliath fight ahead, as Lyndoch Living has access to top Melbourne lawyers, K&L Gates, for its legal battles.

Once again, I am astonished that I have to write the words “legal battle” between Lyndoch and the community.

But as we know, Dr McCluskey is among more than 120 people who have had their membership applications knocked back by the Lyndoch board in the past 18 months.

Under its Constitution both past and present, Lyndoch has had the power to do this.

Never, however, has it used that power with such blunt force.

At no time has the gate been closed so firmly by Lyndoch against the community that created it. Even our local MPs can’t get straight answers as to why.

The mounting concerns around Lyndoch Living that have been exposed by this page have always been two-fold:

the loss of so many experienced staff and the decline in care to the point where Lyndoch is now, for the first time, failing national standards;

the shutting out of the community from becoming members or board members.

I see these two issues as being closely related.

The first issue – staff resignations and standards of care – is now in the hands of the federal authorities and they have the power to act.

We are all waiting to see what they do and if Lyndoch Living will face sanctions before its reaccreditation falls due next February.

At the moment, the Lyndoch nursing home is ranked two out of four stars and in need of “significant improvement”.

I often wonder how many members of the Lyndoch board or executive would feel comfortable having their loved ones in the care of a nursing home that has dropped to two out of four stars, unlike any other aged care home in Warrnambool?

The second issue – the shutting out of the community – well, this is our issue to fix.

Lyndoch can only be stolen from under our noses if we don’t push back.

Dr McCluskey is among all of those pushing back and while he may be the “David” in the battle ahead, he has a big slice of the community right behind him.

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.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Warrnambool has two choices. It can accept that the community has been cut out of Lyndoch, or it can fight back.

Warrnambool vet Dr Michael McCluskey is among those now doing the latter.

Dr McCluskey is challenging the rejection of his membership application to Lyndoch Living on the grounds of discrimination.

Dr McCluskey lodged a complaint with VCAT today, arguing that the decision by the Lyndoch board was illegal under the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act.

“The only information that can be filled out on the Lyndoch membership form is my name and address,” Dr McCluskey said.

“There was no request from Lyndoch for any further information from me.

“Given this, the Lyndoch board could only have rejected me on the basis of my name and my gender, because they know nothing else about me, my background, or my qualifications, or interests.”

A very good point, because if the Lyndoch board had bothered to find out more about Dr McCluskey, they would have discovered the following:

He holds a University degree with Honours in the field of biological sciences (Bachelor of Veterinary Science);

Extra post graduate University level study with multiple units in the fields of psychology, law and economics;

Five years as Director of Finance on Board of Management at a local community sporting organisation handling a multi-million dollar annual turnover;

More than six years as both volunteer and member of committee of management of  Warrnambool Riding for Disabled;

Is a current member and also serving on committee of management of Water for East Timor, a locally-based charity that is overseas focussed.

Dr McCluskey didn’t apply for membership to Lyndoch as part of the recent community membership drive – he applied several months earlier.

He is now among a long list of community minded souls who have had their applications flatly rejected.

This means everyone who applied is also automatically ruled out of nominating for the board at the AGM on 26 October, as only members can apply.

Having read that 115 people from across the community were rejected last month, Dr McCluskey decided it was time to push back.

“I’m hoping this can become a test case on behalf of the community,” he says, “and that VCAT will at least decide that Lyndoch has a case to answer”.

He hopes others will be encouraged to follow his lead, particularly as the VCAT application is free of charge due to the issue falling under the Equal Opportunity Act.

Lyndoch Living has used the “no reason” clause in its Constitution to dismiss every single membership application from the general public these past two years.

Those who have tried these past two years include now Mayor Vicki Jellie, AM, senior SWHC nurse Kate Sloan, aged care expert Janet Dunn, leading local businesswomen Natalie Stevens and Marie Bird, the inaugural Director of the Greater Green Triangle University Department of Rural Health, Professor James Dunbar, educator and MPower board member Helen Bayne, former Lyndoch senior nurse Tracey Dean, educators Tina Reilly and Claire Bishop, retirees in Lyndoch’s Waterfront Living apartments, and dozens of locals who care about Lyndoch as a much-loved community asset.

All were bumped by the board without reason.

But a “no reason” clause can be fragile, as WCC CEO Peter Schneider proved with his Supreme Court case.

No doubt the Lyndoch board, Sue Cassidy (hairdresser/salon owner), vice chair Kerry Nelson (ex MPower CEO), treasurer Kane Grant (Sinclair&Wilson), retired Deakin academics Lorraine Mielnik and Prof Rob Wallis, Ron Page (dairy industry) and WCC director Andrew Paton hope the community will just accept it.

In my opinion, the board’s loyalty is to the CEO. It is not to the wider community.

Those prepared to push back, however, are loyal to the spirit of Lyndoch, to its vulnerable residents who must be its first priority, and to the increasingly exhausted staff who care for them.

Dr McCluskey has cast another stone in what has become a David and Goliath battle. We shall see where it lands.