Finding solutions

Ann Bingham has a mission in life: to enable older people to live well at home.

The Uniting AgeWell Program Manager for home care in north and north-western Tasmania finds great joy in seeing how home care packages can best be used to maximise benefits to clients – whether it’s help around the home, personal assistance, social inclusion, buying mobility aids or even adaptions to the home like shower rails and more.

Ann has a lifetime of experience in nursing older people, as well as managing aged care facilities, to know exactly what it takes to live life to the full as you age. “We all get older,” she says. “We can’t change that. But what we can change is how we live as we age.”

Ann leads two teams – one based from Launceston and the other from Latrobe – comprising over 50 people, including care advisors and home care workers. She strives to lead by example and with kindness and humour. When she talks about her team her eyes light up, “It gives me great satisfaction to empower staff to be the best versions of who they are,” she explains.

In her usual pragmatic way, she acknowledges that death is an extension of life and that the older person needs to be the decision maker in ensuring their palliative-care process unfolds on their terms.

To this end, Ann has been a key member of the Uniting AgeWell Northern Tasmania Home Care’s End of Life Decisions in Aged Care Project and has been working to develop and implement a plan of action to improve end-of-life care to clients in their own homes. A raft of measures are already in place.

Ann knows only too well the importance of living life on her terms. She grew up in Tasmania and even as a little girl knew she wanted to be a nurse.

She did her nursing training at the Royal Hobart Hospital and then over the years nursed, largely with older people, in a number of hospital and community roles across Australia. In Hobart, Port Hedland, Halls Creek, Cairns, at Flinders Island (in Bass Strait) and amazingly at a resort on Lizard island at the top of the Great Barrier Reef where she spent her spare time scuba diving on the coral reefs.

She returned to Tasmania and started working in aged care, taking up her role at Uniting AgeWell over three years ago.

“It’s wonderful to be working with an organisation that is values-driven,” Ann says. “We always put our clients first and foremost in all that we do. Each and every day. We regard it as a privilege to be able to make a difference to their lives.”

Ann lives with her partner and loves gardening and doing crafts like creating mosaics and quilts. They also share two cats, Monty and Cyril. “Sadly my inclusive management style doesn’t work with the cats,” she laughs. “They boss me around!”

International Women’s Day is an important opportunity for Uniting AgeWell to recognise the impact of our valued members of staff, like Ann, and to reaffirm our commitment to providing truly inclusive career pathways.

With 78 per cent of the workforce identifying as female, Uniting AgeWell offers a range of career benefits including flexible work arrangements to enable staff to work around their family commitments.