Category: Latest industry developments

Something for you to think about. Over the Christmas period a couple of new retirement village developments were announced, and they are big high-rise buildings.

How would you like to be managing a 21-storey retirement village with 142 apartments (pictured) Ozcare, a QLD not-for-profit operator, is going to build one 500 metres from Aveo’s 19-storey Newstead village.

Also, over Christmas, another QLD not-for-profit operator, Bolton Clarke (the old RSL Care) announced a 25-storey retirement village which will have 182 apartments.

In December the construction of a retirement village called U City topped out in Adelaide at 20 storeys. It is being built by another not-for-profit, Uniting Communities.

These are big and expensive projects; their cost ranges from $100 million to $200 million to build. They will take village management to a whole new level – which is exciting as it expands career opportunities.

The role of an ombudsman is to be the policeman (or woman) of the retirement village sector.

In Victoria, Labor is in power and resisting the appointment of an ombudsman. They have an election in one month’s time, 24 November. The Liberals say they will appoint an ombudsman if they win.

NSW goes to the polls on 23 March next year. The Liberals are in power and last week the Labor Opposition Leader Luke Foley promised to appoint a retirement village ombudsman if elected.

At the moment Liberals are planning to announce a position they call an ‘ambassador’ in the next week. It is uncertain what this role is but it will have less power than an ombudsman.

Labor leader Luke Foley said the ombudsman would consider disputes related to the Australian Consumer Law, Retirement Villages Act 1999, Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013, and associated regulations, and report systemic problems in the sector to Parliament.

What this all demonstrates is that if you are in government you don’t want more regulation to administer. If you are not in government you will say anything to win the day.

This is our prediction.

Out of the Royal commission will come a discussion about how well people with early and advancing dementia can be cared for in their home, with home care, and in retirement villages.

As a village manager you will be well aware of the challenges – identifying your residents early, supporting them and then judgements on the most suitable accommodation for them in the longer term.

With retirement villages increasingly being marketed as supportive of residents with increasing frailty, and coordinating home care, there will be discussion in the Royal Commission on skill sets and training of village staff.

A major focus of the Four Corners program was that a Certificate 3 AIN only receives four hours dementia tuition in their training course.

Our prediction is that village staff in the not too distant future will require training as well.

Four Corners is right. The standard course module for dementia is grossly inadequate. You can check it out HERE.

Interestingly, part of the course is to implement strategies for yourself to manage the stress of caring for people with dementia. A valid point.

We believe all village staff should receive dementia training – to be supportive of residents, to support you and to protect operators and the business.

Here is a link to Dementia Training Australia is one example.

It is a three-day course.

This is our prediction. What do you think?

You may be aware that there has been a strong push for retirement villages to be included in the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into aged care.

The risk for retirement villages in being part of the Royal Commission is the public will be further confused – what is the difference between aged care homes and retirement villages?

In the media the push has been led by the Fairfax journalist Adele Ferguson with the backing of the Consumer Advocacy Law Centre in Victoria.

Four of the state resident associations have made submissions requesting the same.

The outcome they primarily want is to establish a retirement village ombudsman, either through the federal government or the individual state governments.

Word on the street is that Canberra is saying ‘no’, it will not include retirement villages. Aged care is a big enough subject on its own.

The only area that villages will be touched is around home care – which is obviously delivered in villages.

‘Care’ is now established as a buzzword in the retirement village sector.

Delivering care services into villages is now a major service to residents.

But is it a turn-on or a turn-off as a marketing tool to potential residents?

Research shows that people living in their own homes do not want ‘care’ delivered into their homes; they want ‘support’.

‘Care’ refers to services to people who really can’t look after themselves – they need care.

‘Support’ means I am okay, but I wouldn’t mind a bit of a hand occasionally.

Here in NSW, UnitingCare, one of our largest home care providers (and residential care providers) changed its name simply to Uniting two years ago because its customers said they found receiving support services from UnitingCare belittling.

Now online ‘care support’ disruptor Better Caring has picked up on this message, changing its name to Mable.

Peter Scutt, co-founder and CEO of Mable said feedback from the Better Caring community drove the decision to rebrand: “Since the beginnings of Better Caring, we’ve been hearing from those in our community who have said our previous name made us sound like a traditional care provider rather than a bold innovator. And many people in our community didn’t need care, rather they wanted support to live independently and be included”.

It makes sense and the name Mable sure is a lot more uplifting.

What do you think? And will you be marketing ‘care’ or ‘support’?