Biography
Linda has worked with Uniting for almost 4 years leading the implementation of the Inspired Care philosophy into practice and a proactive focus to quality improvement and governance. This whole of organisation change transformation has seen Uniting from Institutional model of care to a client centred model. This change is to enhance the lives of older people and enable them to have more meaning within dementia care settings, the other significant benefit is that as a consequence of more familiar spaces and bespoke routines needs driven behaviours in the dementia clientele have reduced. This whole of organisational change has been informed due to Linda’s involvement with international leaders and researchers in quality improvement and dementia practice. This change journey has been underpinned by an extensive evaluation framework which is already realising quantitative improvements.
In addition, Linda is the Uniting lead, with the Cognitive Decline partnership Centre for the Vitamin D supplementation study to validate the role of Vitamin D in Dementia and to enhance falls within older adults. She is an Honorary Associate at the School of Health Management in UTS Faculty of Health.
Background:
Linda has held a variety of roles from frontline to senior management in both the public, private and Not for Profit sectors. In these roles Linda has established new departments and teams working with key internal and external stakeholders to establish and deliver the strategic direction. She has worked with Boards, executives and front-line staff to transform and reconfigure organisations for the future.
Linda has previously worked with the KPMG Health practice for 7 years on large transformational change programs regarding practice and culture in ageing and acute health care, also supporting the implementation of consistent models of care across Australia.
Linda has served on a number of international and national health related committee’s and working parties notably as a member of:
- The New South Wales Clinical Excellence Commission, Clinical Council;
- Children’s Hospitals Australia Medication Safety Group;
- National Medication Safety Breakthrough Collaborative;
- New South Wales Patient Flow and Safety Collaborative,
- National Open Disclosure Standard with Standards Australia and Australian Safety and Quality Council, and
- Lecturer on the Safety and Quality course, Masters of Medicine, School of Public Health, University of Sydney.
Linda has presented nationally and internationally at conferences and symposia. She has published several whitepapers with KPMG and in academic journals. She has also received a NSW Premiers Award to review medication practices. Linda was privileged to receive a National Patient Safety Foundation scholarship for the Patient Safety Leadership with the American Hospitals Association and National Patient Safety Fellowship affording the opportunity to work with key thought leaders, agencies and training for systemic patient safety.
Qualifications
- Masters of Science, Coaching Psychology, The University of Sydney
- Prince 2 Practitioner
- Executive Coach, Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership, Sydney
- Master Business Administration (Executive), The University of Sydney and University of New South Wales
- Graduate Certificate in Change Management, The University of Sydney and University of New South Wales.
- Paediatric Critical Care Southbank University London and The Children’s Hospital Great Ormond St., London.
- Bachelor Nursing (Hons 1ST Class) Sydney University
Justin, L.
Paper
How to achieve quality with in an environment of increasing customer expectations
As populations around the world have continued to age, the demands for aged care services have increased rapidly.1 In Australia, while aged care services operate alongside health services in the delivery of care to the elderly, they are governed by different sets of regulatory requirements and funding relationships.2
While healthcare systems in Australia and internationally have, over the last two decades, undertaken significant structural, regulatory and organizational changes in responses to highly publicized breakdowns in the quality and safety of care, 3 4 this agenda (despite similarly high publicized scandals)5 has progressed more slowly in the aged care field.6 As Lloyd, et al. 7: 3 note the “Quality of care in nursing homes for older persons is a major concern in a number of countries”.
Numerous reviews, nationally and internationally4 have highlighted the importance of quality and safety within complex organisations. The central quality and risk factors in all these reviews are consistent:
- A lack of leadership;
- Partial loss of focus on quality and safety as primary aims;
- Inadequate openness to the voices of clients and carers;
- Insufficient skills in safety and improvement;
- Staffing inadequate for client/ patients’ needs, and;
- A lack of clarity and cooperation within and across teams, services and agencies.
This paper focuses on how an agency of 77 nursing homes has moved to aged friendly, person centred homes within 2 states in Australia, whilst exceeding regulatory controls and enhancing customer experience. Using robust change management and coaching skills to support frontline managers deliver on person centred care within a complex adaptive environments, moving from institutional to household model of care whereby clients live the life they choose regardless of ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. IN the course of this change realizing $1M of grant funding to customize care for LGBTI communities with Apps, on line interactive education and web portals to support access and reduce stigma.
Results are demonstrating reduced clinical incidents, increased client and staff satisfaction and enhanced performance. Uniting is becoming an employer of choice. All of which is being achieved whilst completing a $30 million turnaround to achieve greater competitiveness within increased client and regulatory expectations.
