* 4 June 2025 *
New Aged Care Act Imminent
The new Aged Care Act, affecting aged care both in residential and home settings, comes into effect on 1 July. The Australian Government notes: “This will improve the lives of older people accessing aged services in their homes, community settings and residential aged care homes”.
A transitional ‘no worse off principle’ applies to both residential and home care: for residential care, this applies to people already in residential aged care on 30 June 2025, and for home care this is to ensure that home care clients, those approved for a package at 12 September 2024 and those on the National Priority System do not pay higher contributions than they pay in the Home Care Packages Program (HCPP).
New Collaboration
Our Chair, Mike O’Meara OAM and I have been meeting with the Chairs and CEOs of similar organisations to ours in other states to discuss forming a new alliance to represent the interests of the veteran community across all states. This new initiative seeks to give greater reach, a stronger voice and increased capacity to advocate for the needs of veterans and their families. Discussions are proceeding well.
New Partnership with Defence Health
I am also very pleased to announce our partnership with Defence Health who are supporting the V Centre with a six-month ‘Sponsor-A-Room’ sponsorship: this is an exciting relationship with an organisation that shares much common ground with us.
Memorial to Mrs Vasey at Frankston South
Just before ANZAC Day, a new memorial to Mrs Vasey OBE CBE was unveiled at Vasey RSL Care Frankston South.
Mrs Vasey is one of the main reasons our organisation exists. Her work to support, encourage and advocate for war widows and their children is an important legacy that we proudly continue. Honouring her through this memorial is one way we can ensure her work is not forgotten.
V Satellite coming to Geelong
As mentioned in the last issue, we were delighted to receive $4.68 million in funding for a Geelong-based Veteran Empowerment Program and $1.2 million for staff to provide a range of support services to veterans and their families, from the Federal Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA).
The V Satellite, to be constructed at our Bell Park Ex-Service Accommodation (ESA) site, will be based on our Ivanhoe V Centre Veteran Empowerment Program. It will offer accommodation in a supported environment and will link to the Ivanhoe V Centre for management and additional program support, and to local providers for the support services needed by participants.
I am extremely pleased that we have been provided with the means to extend the Veteran Empowerment Program to a new regional site and we look forward to working more closely with ex-service organisations and mainstream services to support veterans in the Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula region.
We are in the process of recruiting two full time Veteran Housing and Support Coordinator roles (or equivalent) as part of the Veteran Services team to support V Centre participants, V Satellite residents and at times, ESA residents.
Coming Soon…
Our annual Saluting Excellence Staff Awards will be opening for nominations soon. Your nominations mean a great deal, so if you have had an outstanding experience with any one (or more) of our staff, please do nominate them for an award.
A new initiative, the Tour de V Centre, will be taking place in the spring. This is a 460km bike ride from Warrnambool to Melbourne over 4 days, raising awareness of veterans’ issues and the services available – in particular, the Veteran Empowerment Program. We will have more news on this in the coming months so look out for more information.
We are making good progress on the planning for our Frankston South Integrated Living Development: we will bring you more news on this soon.
Tax Time Fundraising Appeal
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to our first ever fundraising Tax Appeal. As a not-for-profit, all donations over $2 are tax deductible and we greatly appreciate your support for all aspects of our organisation as we continue to Serve Those Who Served.
Janna Voloshin
Chief Executive Officer