Facility Manager’s role and Cindi Farkas is the LBV’s new Clinical Care Manager.
The Lilliane Brady Village once again has a full management team with the recent appointment of a Facility Manager and Clinical Care Manager.
The Cobar Shire Council-owned aged care facility has been struggling to fill its management roles following the departure of its long-serving Director of Nursing, Sharon Huon, in 2021. (Sharon had worked at the facility for 30 years prior to her retirement.)
Council’s Director of Community Services Kym Miller said it had been a tough time over the past 12 months with temporary managers and contractors “holding the fort” since Sharon’s replacement, Helen Spyt, left in May 2022.
“The staff have done their best but with just too many changes it has caused considerable disruption for staff,” Mr Miller said.
“Council introduced the Clinical Care Manager role into the structure in 2021 in recognition of the requirement for someone to formally oversee the quality of clinical care provided by nursing staff, acknowledging that from a workload perspective it was a role required in addition to the DON to enable a focus on continuous improvement.
“We have been actively recruiting on and off since then, but unable to fill the role until now,” Mr Miller said.
Melissa Muhs is the LBV’s new Facility Manager (formerly known as the Director of Nursing), who will be in charge of and responsible for the entire facility.
She will manage staff and resources and the day-to-day operations of the facility.
Cindi Farkas has been appointed as Clinical Care Manager who will be responsible for all the care staff (nurses) and ensure the delivery of high quality, best practice clinical care and services to residents, in compliance with all regulatory standards.
A registered nurse for 30 years, Melissa has worked for the past 13 years for Hammond Care specializing in Residential and Community Aged Care and ran a 90 bed dementia specific Residential Aged Care facility in Sydney.
Prior to coming to Cobar, Melissa has lived all her life in Sydney in the Sutherland Shire.
Melissa said when the opportunity to work in Cobar came up, she had been looking for something different but “not necessarily out bush”.
“My partner and I talked about it and thought oh well let’s give it a go, and he’s been keen for a long time to go out bush somewhere.
“He works from home and can work from anywhere so when this opportunity came up I applied and it sort of just gained momentum and just got better and better,” Melissa said.
Melissa and her partner came out to Cobar and had a look around before she decided on taking the job.
“There were no red flags, first impressions of the facility were really good, everyone was really friendly to us and it just sort of got its own momentum and then suddenly we were packing and then we were here!
“My mum reckons I’m having a midlife crisis,” Melissa joked.
“As Facility Manager I support all of the staff to do their job and I look after all the back end administrative-type things, funding, responding to feedback, making sure people have the tools they need to do their job, and report to the council.”
Melissa said her past experiences working with people and problem solving “being that person in the middle sort of thing”, trying to bring things together and creating networks that support the facility to get the best for everybody will be valuable in her new role.
“I’m certainly a collaborator,” she said.
“I’m in the process of building relationships with the pharmacy, the GPs, the physio, the hospital etc.”
When asked about making changes, Melissa said she does plan to make a few.
“It’s going to be a slow process.
“I’m certainly not here to change everything in five minutes, it’s more about assessing what needs to be done, collaborating with the people that are involved in that change and then determining how we go about it.”
New Clinical Care Manager Cindi Farkas comes to Cobar from Mudgee where she worked in a 90 bed Aged Care Facility as the Nurse Educator.
“Our family moved to Mudgee seven years ago to be with family and to get away from the city,” Cindi told The Cobar Weekly.
She said since then Mudgee has grown considerably and a quieter life in Cobar appealed to her.
“I have a teenage son who is moving here with me after the school holidays.
“My husband and daughter remain in Mudgee while my daughter finishes High School. She is currently in Year 11 and didn’t want to move during this crucial time of her education,” Cindi said.
“At LBV I hope to support the staff in providing the best clinical care available for the residents who make LBV their home.
“I want to build and strengthen relationships with residents and their families as well as staff and the local community and businesses who support LBV.
“Working in Aged Care has changed over the years. The complexities of looking after the medical needs of our aging population has become a big part of care, however we still want our residents to feel like they are home, that they are comfortable and safe.
“The families need to feel their loved ones are cared for with compassion as well as ensuring their medical needs are met.
“Having worked in a remote rural facility I fully understand the need to build and maintain relationships with our community including the local doctors, pharmacists and volunteers.”
Mr Miller said Melissa and Cindi are passionate about aged care and committed to making a positive contribution to both the facility and the Cobar community.
“Firstly steadying, then steering the ship to success is the goal and we are very excited about their timely appointments with my pending retirement,” he said.
“Starting at essentially the same time will strengthen their effectiveness as they learn the ropes together and support each other through this period of change.
“There has been a heavy reliance on agency staff for the last couple of months to meet rostering requirements due to our ongoing inability to secure qualified or experienced employees at the facility,” he said.
“We are very grateful for all the agency staff who have come for short and long term contracts to help support the facility during this time, however we are working really hard to return to an ‘owner operator’ model as quickly as possible.
“We are hopeful that significant increases to the Award wages for the industry from July 1 will go a long way to enabling that transition,” Mr Miller said.
