Crisis communications can prove a stumbling block for any organisation. A full-scale crisis is (thankfully) not something that every business will face, but in higher risk sectors like aged care, it is essential to be prepared and to get it right.

CEDA’s report, Duty of care: Meeting the aged care workforce challenge revealed that Australia faces a shortage of at least 110,000 direct aged-care workers in next decade, just to meet minimum care requirements.

From a risk perspective, resourcing challenges alone would be cause for concern, but aged care is also experiencing significant regulatory impacts, consolidation or divestment of services, ageing assets, funding challenges, and the changing needs and expectations of the market.

With challenges on so many fronts, it would not take much for a poorly handled risk to become a crisis. And in an industry entrusted with the care of some of our most vulnerable people, a crisis could make or break an operator’s reputation.

So, how can aged care providers effectively communicate clear messages in a crisis, whilst maintaining a compassionate, values-based approach that is essential in communicating to their varied stakeholders?

It starts with preparation.

Identify your risks and establish a plan to manage them

• Can you name the key risks facing your business?
• When was your last risk audit?
• Did you consider reputation as well as financial, legal and other risks?
• Do you have a media policy and are your key spokespeople appropriately trained to speak in a crisis situation?

Establish your communication channels

Aged care has a range of stakeholders, with varied abilities to understand communication directives which is critical in a crisis. Identifying and understanding unique stakeholder needs is essential to ensure the channels and methods of communication are appropriate for each stakeholder type.

• Do you know who all your stakeholders are? (Internal, external, government etc)
• Can you reach them quickly?
• What are your existing communication channels? Do you need to change/add to support a crisis response? (e.g. what if crisis impacts your IT/tech)
• How do you need to tailor communication of instructions, processes and protocols for specific stakeholders, especially those with varying cognitive functions?

Establish a dedicated crisis communications team

• Who are the team members?
• What role/s do they play?
• How does the Crisis Comms Team connect with Crisis/Critical Incident and Operations Teams?
• Do you have an A Team and a B team?

Note: this team may also include or require external consultants to provide objective advice, support and backup to your internal team.

Getting the message right

The words you use are just as important as the actions you take in crisis management, and recovery. This is especially the case in aged care, where highly vulnerable stakeholders and anxious family members can easily contribute to an emotive media story.

Developing a set of key messages in advance will enable aged care operators to effectively and sensitively respond to the crisis, whilst maintaining core values.

Some guiding principles to remember are:

• Transparency and trust – critical to maintaining relationships with all stakeholders
• Sensitivity and respect – lets your key stakeholders know that you understand their needs and concerns, and that they are important to you
• Reputation matters – your response could make or break the trust you have built with key stakeholders and in your brand generally.

Tips in forming your communications response

It’s important to remember that you don’t need to have all the answers immediately – crises are rapidly evolving, but iterative. Consider the following:

• What will be important to say?
• What would your stakeholders want to hear/know from you?
• State the facts.
• Acknowledge any wrongdoing and steps being taken to rectify an issue.
• Establish yourself as the ‘source of truth’ to shape the commentary and manage negativity.
• Advise when further information may be released.
• Who do people go to if they have questions (internal and external stakeholders) and are there responses you can prepare ahead of time?
• How can the vision and mission of the business be conveyed whilst maintaining clarity on the issue at hand?

Delivering your communications

When it comes to actioning your comms, keep it simple, clear and authentic.

• Be consistent in what you say
• Show understanding / sympathy
• Be honest and transparent
• Remain calm and show concern
• Speak in common language
• Speak with authority and authenticity
• Communicate to those in your care and your staff first wherever possible

Crises in aged care are inevitable yet manageable. Organisations that plan for issues and crises and pay as much attention to communication risks to their business as they do to operational ones, are those more likely to successfully navigate the storm.

BBS has supported clients in aged care, retirement living and beyond to develop their crisis communications strategies and management plans. Contact us to discuss our full suite of crisis communications training and support, or to enquire about our live crisis management services.