Springvale Residential Centre manager Linda Wallace insists the ACAA award for excellence in management is a product of all the staff.Sarah Schwager
A SPRINGVALE agedcare manager has proved one of the best in her field after winning a national award.
Springvale Residential Centre manager Linda Wallace was nominated by her staff for the Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) Excellence in Management Award for managing an agedcare facility under 70 beds.
“I feel very proud but I just see it as an award received on behalf of all the staff,” she said. Ms Wallace said she found out she had won after coming back from holidays two weeks previously when a letter had arrived on her desk.
“It was a big shock. I didn’t even know I had been nominated,” she said.
Ms Wallace said the nomination was based on the facility’s successes, which include a competencybased training program for personal care workers, which she said had been very successful, and some City of Greater Dandenongfunded projects.
She said in 2003, they had received a $10,000 council grant in which a nurseryman, volunteers, year 10 VET students and residents had embarked on a gardening project at the facility and set up a hydroponic system, helping “weed out the generation gap”.
She said they had also received a $10,000 grant to publish a book of stories compiled by Coomoora Secondary College year 11 students about the lives of the residents.
Ms Wallace was flown to Brisbane for three days for the ACAA National Congress last week, with all her expenses paid for, including accommodation and flights.
“It was a good opportunity to network with other agedcare facilities,” she said. “There are great opportunities in aged care. It’s a great business to be in. I love it.”
Ms Wallace has worked as the manager at Springvale Residential Centre for more than three years. Before that, she worked in human resources management in aged care for two years and with the Royal District Nursing Service for 21 years.
“They’re a fabulous bunch of staff. We are very fortunate here that we have staff who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. This is great for the residents,” she said.
