Yvonne Sutherland

Yvonne Sutherland has over twenty years experience in community care and aged care. From 1999 to 2002, she was the Manager of the Centre for Older Persons Health, Goulburn Valley Health.

During this period, Yvonne was also appointed to:

• the Victorian Ministerial Reference Group – Policy Framework for Public Sector Residential Aged Care Services in Victoria
• the Steering Committee of the Alzheimer’s Association Australia - Dementia Education Support Program
• elected for a term as the Chairperson of Aged Care Assessment Services, Victoria.

During her time as Executive Director at Council On The Ageing (NT), Yvonne managed the organisation and provided advice to the NT Government (Ministers and Members of the Opposition) on a range of issues affecting older people living in NT, including:

• HACC Transport Service - Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs
• HACC Training Project - Northern Territory
• HACC Assessment Service
• Community Aged Care Packages (CACP)
• Assistance with Care and Housing for the Aged (ACHA)
• Linkcare - Community Options for people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• Ethnic Liaison - Partners in Cultural Care project.

Yvonne also worked extensively as an advocate and community educator with consumers and their carers to negotiate and/or understand the complex aged care and community care service systems.

From 2002 to 2005 Yvonne was the Service Manager for TEAM Health in the Northern Territory. Key responsibilities and tasks in this role included:

• day-to-day management for Community Aged Care Packages (CACP) and a range of psychosocial rehabilitation programs for people with disabilities including training, outreach, and supported accommodation
• supervision and support to staff
• development of program systems, including policy, procedure and tools to assist in the delivery, evaluation and reporting of contracted client outcomes
• development and implementation of quality improvement and occupational health and safety systems to meet the organisation’s legislative requirements
• facilitation of Mental Health Week through health promoting activities in the top end of the Northern Territory

Recent AHA consulting projects by Yvonne include:

• Lead facilitator for the delivery of National Delegation Training for Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACATs).  This project involved delivering 52 training sessions for all ACATs across Australia.
• Delivery of Transition Care training to ACATs.  This national project involved conducting training seminars to assist ACATs to develop a better understanding of the Transition Care Program, to enable them to accurately and consistently assess older people as being eligible for the Program.

These projects demonstrate Yvonne’s comprehensive knowledge of the Australian health system including the interface between the acute, sub-acute, community and aged care systems.