The Real Care the Second Time Around project is offering free virtual training for aged care staff on Trauma Aware, Healing Informed Aged Care for Forgotten Australians and Care Leavers. The training runs for 1.5 hours (1pm-2.30pm AEST, 1.30pm-3.00pm ACST, 11am-12.30pm WST).

Forgotten Australians and Care Leavers* refers to the 500,000 children that were placed into institutional and out-of-home care in Australia in the last century. Of this group, 7,000 were former child migrants, 50,000 were indigenous children from the Stolen Generations and over 440,000 were non-indigenous children.

Forgotten Australians and Care Leavers often face barriers to accessing aged care and the idea of requiring care as they age can be deeply retraumatising as their experiences as children in care were often traumatic.

Over the past several years, Helping Hand Aged Care has developed training and resources relating to care of Forgotten Australians and Care Leavers as part of the Real Care the Second Time Around (RCSTA) project.

With the Strengthened Standards and new legislative requirements to provide trauma aware, healing informed aged care, this work is more important than ever. We are proud to have worked alongside people who identify as Forgotten Australians or Care Leavers to co-design the training and resources delivered as part of the project and are very thankful for the assistance of those with lived experience.

The RCSTA resources and training were designed to support aged care providers to provide trauma aware services for Care Leavers, and to give Care Leavers practical information about the questions they can ask and what to expect in aged care. The resources and training are free and are available at www.realcaretoolkit.com.au. The training and resources will assist any provider wishing to apply for specialisation under the Verification Framework. The training program is suitable for everyone working in aged care. While there is a focus on residential care, the learnings also apply to home care.

Any questions, please contact clewis@helpinghand.org.au

* We respect that not everyone will identify with the terminology ‘Forgotten Australians’.