Aged Care Employee Day 2022

What is Aged Care Employee Day?

‘Aged Care Employee Day’ is an Employee Appreciation Day when we can celebrate those involved in the journey of caring for people who receive aged care services. It may be cooks and hospitality teams, drivers, cleaners and laundry employees assistants in nursing, nurses and care workers, volunteers, leisure and lifestyle officers, and administration teams.

These people often develop meaningful relationships with our older loved ones – becoming defacto family members in the process.

In 2022 Employee Appreciation Day puts these everyday heroes in the spotlight, celebrates them, and highlights the many different roles of those involved in the aged care journey. It was started by not-for-profit provider Whiddon in 2018 and became a national event in 2019.

How did Aged Care Employee Day begin?

While initiatives like International Nurses Day exist, they reach a small percentage of the incredible staff involved in the industry. Over 8 in 10 employees in the aged care workforce are in roles outside of a registered nurse, enrolled nurse or nurse practitioner. The team at Whiddon recognised this issue and resolved to change it by creating the new day.

Chris Mamarelis, Whiddon CEO, said: “We have long felt that some of the most unsung heroes in our society are aged care employees – all of them. While Whiddon has always been committed to showing our own team members how much we care, we felt that was simply not enough and that everyone in the industry deserves special recognition and a day to pay homage to the work they do.

“We often leverage our strong community connections and engage families, friends and community groups to help care for older Australians, ensuring they achieve a healthy quality of life. But this often means those who work in aged care are putting others’ needs before their own. This is why we need to honour and acknowledge their hard work.

“We came up with the idea to officially create Aged Care Employee Day in 2018 and are delighted to be celebrating this new national day once again in 2022. This is the day to say a huge thank you and to recognise and honour the hard workers behind our entire industry.”

How we’re celebrating at Whiddon

At Whiddon, Aged Care Employee Day is one of our biggest days of the year! On the 7th of August you’ll find us celebrating our people  with special celebration and recognition events. We’ll also be sharing stories from team members across Whiddon – career stories from dedicated individuals working in all areas of aged care.

We created the day in 2018 for one reason – to celebrate the thousands of dedicated and passionate members of our organisation and across the country. They are the ones who care for the older Australians and contribute to making such a positive difference to their lives every single day.

How we celebrated Aged Care Employee Day at Whiddon


The team at Whiddon Belmont enjoying their ACED goodie bags


The Easton Park team set up a delicious sweet bar!


Whiddon Largs dressed up just for the occasion

Whiddon Laurieton held a special BBQ event for the day

Helpful resources

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