Daniel Gannon has a point – let’s not use the term ‘private aged care’

He was taking a gentle shot at us – and we concede he made his mark.

In his excellent speech at the LEADERS SUMMIT, Daniel Gannon, Executive Director of the Retirement Living Council, stated that some people are promoting the concept that up to 50% of retirement village beds will be aged care beds within five years.

That is us, given no new beds are being built and village residents will demand to stay in the village despite their increasing acuity. Residents will rely on care being delivered into their village homes and they will pay for it over and above the Government packages.

This is being referred to as the ‘private aged care’ village model.

Daniel is advocating against this concept of villages evolving into ‘private aged care’.

He says ‘care’ should be seen as a support for the person to continue their life as they wish, that they retain their independence. He warns against the sector passively drifting into a mentality that steals that independence. He says:

“And residents pick up that signal – often unconsciously – and they begin to ‘settle’. Not because they need to. But because the environment quietly tells them it’s time.”

He adds:

“Can we deliver more care without redefining residents primarily by their needs? Can we treat care as enabling infrastructure, rather than a signal that life has narrowed?”

“You stop asking only, ‘how much care can we provide?’ And you start asking, ‘what does this care make possible?’”

Looking forward, Daniel hopes the sector will have made a deliberate choice:

“That we invested in care as infrastructure – so independence remained the outcome.”

We can’t but agree. So we will come up with a different expression to ‘private aged care’ and report back in later issues of this newsletter.

Thanks Daniel.

You can view his speech below.