Carol Altmann- The Terrier

Tonight, names and faces.

I want to share with you the names and faces in this montage, who are now among an estimated 200 people whose faces you have not seen, but who have left Lyndoch Living in the past five years.

Each of them has a name, a face and have spent years caring for our elderly – they deserve to be more than just a number.

Numbers are numbing.

It’s the names and faces that capture what has been unfolding at Lyndoch since 2015, with a trickle of staff leaving turning into a stream and now into a flood.

The seven faces here are among those, in the past eight weeks, who have either resigned from Lyndoch or taken extended sick leave.

They have been part of the backbone of Lyndoch and, between them, have decades of aged care and nursing experience:

Director of Nursing Julie Baillie, who has worked for Lyndoch for more than 20 years.

Operational Manager of Workforce Development and Registered Nurse Roselie Morey, who has worked at Lyndoch for more than a decade.

Clinical Leader and Enrolled Nurse Scott Lucas, again another decade of service.

Nurse Unit Manager and Registered Nurse Anita Plowman, who has worked at Lyndoch for almost 30 years.

Registered nurse and former Nurse Unit Manager, Maxine Lane, 20 years of service at Lyndoch.

Registered nurse and former May Noonan Hostel Manager  Jeanette Edge, another 10 years of service.

Nurse Unit Manager and Registered Nurse Cath Porter, just over 10 years of service.

All gone and unlikely to return.

So many Lyndoch staff hung in there and hung in there, until it became intolerable.

The staff can’t say that publicly, but I can: it becomes intolerable.

The Terrier has been publishing stories about this for the past two years in the hope that the Lyndoch board and the local community would sense that something wasn’t right.

The community is working it out. The board, however, is not.

As I wrote on Sunday night, the Lyndoch board was sent an anonymous letter by a group of staff way back in April last year, warning them of the changing culture, the growing toxicity, and the consequences.

At the time of the letter , about 80 to 100 staff had gone.

Since then, according to my sources, another 80 to 100 have left. There will be more.

I have spoken to dozens of these people and they all tell disturbing stories which have never been fully aired and can’t be without legal protection.

But I can tell you this – very few of them wanted to leave their jobs.

Many thought they would have life-long careers at Lyndoch.

All of them, bar none, miss the residents they cared for.

Please think of each of these 200 staff next week, on Tuesday 26 October, when Lyndoch Living holds its Annual General Meeting.

None of them will be there, they won’t be named and they won’t be celebrated, which is why I want to honour each and every one of them now.

So to all the nurses, personal care workers, human resources managers, finance officers, payroll staff, cleaners, kitchen hands, chefs, lifestyle workers, gardeners, volunteer coordinators, pastoral care workers, maintenance workers, accountants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, executive staff, directors of nursing, nurse unit managers, clinical leaders and anybody who I may have missed in the long list of the fallen – thankyou.

One day I would like to gather all of you on the Civic Green so Warrnambool can say thank you too.

This loss should be intolerable to us, as a community which loves Lyndoch, and entrusts our loved ones to its care.

And it is why we fight on.

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

Tonight, a message to the Lyndoch board from the front line: help.

This entire Lyndoch campaign by The Terrier has had one simple motivation, which is to expect the best of care for our elderly and vulnerable residents.

That must be the priority.

But Lyndoch is drowning.

I have written so much about this, I have shown you so many photographs of the shift shortages, like the one above, and now we are in uncharted territory.

Because Lyndoch, for the first time and unlike any other nursing home in Warrnambool, is facing sanctions unless it gets its act together after failing care standards set by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

And it’s facing this battle while suffering acute staff shortages and losing more senior staff in one sweep than, I would argue, at any time in its 60 year history.

In the past four weeks the Director of Nursing has gone. The head of May Noonan Hostel in Terang has gone.

At least one nurse unit manager has resigned.

And another two, experienced senior staff last week joined the growing list of those taking extended sick or stress leave. There will be more.

Between them, these individuals have decades of nursing experience that is not easily replaced.

Some Registered Nurses are working double shifts, with the second shift overnight when they are the only RN in the entire Lyndoch complex.

They are tired.

Other care staff are “top and tailing” – starting their shifts two hours early, or finishing two to three hours late, just to help cover the gaps.

Everybody I have contact with is exhausted or upset, but they keep pressing on because they care deeply for the residents.

I could write reams, based on the cries for help that come in each week from Lyndoch staff.

But instead I will convey the message of just one person who summed it all up.

This person has never contacted The Terrier before, but they are someone you need to hear, and we recently spoke for an hour.

They could no longer stay silent, they said, after reading that highly experienced SWHC nurse Kate Sloan had her membership application rejected by the board.

This, they said, proved the board was not listening.

It was not listening to the care staff who have been trying to hold it all together in the hope of change.

Staff have tried to raise their concerns, but if they speak up publicly, comment on this page, or approach the board directly, they are disciplined. (Test: see how many Lyndoch nursing staff comment on this post.)

Lyndoch staff surveys have come and gone.

Secret meetings between Lyndoch staff and local MPs have come and gone.

Senior staff have raised warnings in exit interviews and, in some cases, been brutally direct about an individual who cannot be named for legal reasons.

And little changes, other than staff continue to leave, the deck chairs are shuffled, and the gaps keep getting bigger.

I asked this person at the end of our long conversation what message they wanted to pass on to the Lyndoch Living board:

“I want the public and the board to know that the situation is every bit as bad as what it is.

“The staffing situation has become diabolical…the shortages are near impossible to deal with. What you are saying, it’s happening, it’s telling it like it is.

“The board need to get a sense of the immense pressure the staff are under so please, listen, come down and speak to the staff directly. Please be interested in what is actually going on.”

This begs a question, does the Lyndoch board know what is going on?

Chair Sue Cassidy (Unisexcuts), Vice Chair Kerry Nelson (ex MPower CEO), Treasurer Kane Grant (Sinclair&Wilson), Prof Rob Wallis, Lorraine Mielnik, Ron Page, Andrew Paton (WCC) – do you ask? Are you told? Have you ever met with the non-executive staff?

All good questions for the AGM on 26 October which Kate Sloan, had she been accepted as a member, could have asked, and that is precisely why she wasn’t.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Something nasty is brewing at Lyndoch Living, with senior care staff being lined up as scapegoats for its recent failings in aged care standards.

My understanding is that one of those is the Director of Nursing, who has been expected to absorb an almost indescribable amount of pressure. 

Lyndoch has already gone through one Director of Nursing in the past six years. 

If the current DON does not survive, then it will be two. Do you see something wrong here? I do.

At least one nurse unit manager has already resigned.

That individual was given an impossible task, managed to some how pull it off, but has been chucked over the cliff anyway.

Another two senior individuals who have been pulled into the gunsights have taken sick leave.

This is not where the blame must fall.

Staff have been crying out for more support, more resources, and more trained staff to help meet the needs of 240 residents.

These resources have not arrived.

The care staff at Lyndoch have been working under-resourced for too long and THIS is why it has failed the national standards.

The chickens are coming home to roost.

As I have written about so many times before, those working on the floor have been struggling to cover shifts.

New nursing staff and personal care workers have often found themselves completely overwhelmed.

Some newcomers have been thrown into situations where they are caring for an entire ward, on their own, overnight.

Similarly, just one single Registered Nurse is often in charge of the whole place overnight.

Add to this the unreliability of the nurse communication system and the failings of the resident call bell system and you have a pressure cooker full of stress, anxiety and downright fear.

This is what is happening at Lyndoch Living.

Residents cannot possibly receive the best of care in these conditions and they are conditions that the staff have been struggling under for years.

And the brewing storm is not confined to the nursing and care staff. 

My sources tell me that other areas, including the catering and kitchen staff, are also now under the hammer with cuts.

At the same time, Lyndoch is spending millions – millions – on a medical clinic that nobody asked for, and nobody wants.

As a journalist, I am not supposed to “take sides”, but I refuse to stand on the false fence of impartiality when I see wrong-doing and people about to be hurt.

So what do we do? 

Do we all just stand back and watch this unfold and leave these hard-working staff to take the rap? 

No. No, we don’t. 

What we do is once again call upon the board to stand up, to step in, and to speak up for these staff members who are a part of our community: they are us.

Silence and sitting back is no longer an option Ms Cassidy, Ms Nelson, Prof Wallis, Mr Grant, Ms Mielnik, Mr Paton and Mr Page.

Don’t look away.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

It’s a month since South-West MP Roma Britnell asked to meet with the Lyndoch CEO and board to discuss explosive allegations of bullying and intimidation that emerged through an anonymous staff survey, but the response so far has been crickets.

Roma, Roma, I know how you feel, but I am not the elected representative for South-West Victoria!

Maybe the yellow sticky note  – “Call Roma” – fell off the CEO, Doreen Power’s, desk.

Perhaps the board chair, Kerry Nelson, didn’t pop a reminder – “Call Roma” – into her Google diary.

Whatever the case, Roma is still waiting and I find that extraordinary: to ignore a journalist is one thing, but to ignore an elected official of Parliament, wow.

“A request for a meeting was made in mid-March and to date that request has not been responded to,” Roma said in a written response to my questions today.

Roma, however, is prepared to cut the Lyndoch hierarchy some slack because of C-19.

“Given the current situation with COVID-19 and the various restrictions in place, I understand a meeting would be difficult at this time and I will again seek a meeting with the CEO and Board chair when various coronavirus restrictions are lifted,” she wrote.

So, Roma is not giving up: questions will be asked about the allegations and what is being done in response.

This is the message that all those who have contacted Roma about their concerns around Lyndoch need to hear. 

She is not giving up, and neither am I, because the descent of C19 doesn’t mean the allegations of bullying and intimidation just disappear, of course they don’t.

In fact it busts my heart to think that the people who were brave enough to raise these allegations in the survey are most likely still there at Lyndoch, working hard, doing their best, sucking in their own stress, while the Lyndoch board is too busy, it seems, to turn their mind to them.

They are too busy, it appears, to set up a Zoom with Roma.

Far too busy dealing with, I can only guess, the future of the Warrnambool Medical Clinic, where fresh contracts were due to be signed by the end of this month.

We have C19 crickets on that too.

Lyndoch, meanwhile, remains in full lockdown, having decided not to go with the Federal Govt recommendation that up to two visitors per day, per resident, can be allowed in under certain conditions.

According to a statement on its website today, Lyndoch says it’s being extra cautious in case of a second spike of C19 after Easter.

And yet…

And yet the CEO still travels out of Warrnambool each weekend, including over the Easter period, and returns to Lyndoch.

We can only assume that the board is content with that situation too, perhaps we could ask them.

Oh, wait…..