User Profile

Lauren
Broomham

DIGITAL EDITION

Saturday

Issue 111 | Wellness – real or smoke and mirrors?

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Prevention isn’t a slogan – it’s the only way to save residential aged care

Aged care demand is racing ahead of supply, and even 300,000 extra Home Care Packages won’t bridge it. If we keep treating symptoms, the system will drown in its own success. It’s time to flatten frailty early – or keep building beds you’ll...

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Data-driven care in villages: ignorance is no longer bliss

Retirement villages are no longer just “independent living”. With home care now the default option for ageing in place, operators need visibility of resident wellbeing. Integrating call systems, sensors, and clinical data into one record is now...

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Wellness that works: flattening the frailty curve, one class at a time

Catholic Healthcare CEO Josh McFarlane says aged care can’t wait for reform – prevention, connection and a little creative thinking are already proving more powerful than paperwork. At Catholic Healthcare, wellness isn’t a buzzword – it’s...

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Is your RAC resident boredom now best in class?

Harbison had the stars, the ratings and the awards – but not the spark of living. Then a $0.06-a-day Norwegian cycling program rolled in and rewrote what “best practice” looks like. When CEO David Cochran arrived at NSW Southern...

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Call that a wellness program? This is a wellness program

In New Zealand, operator Arvida doesn’t just talk wellness – it bankrolls it, budgets for it and lets residents take the lead. At its Waimea Plains village in Richmond, Nelson, the company drops $2,000 every month into a residents’ account and...

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Thinking of rescuing a collapsing aged care home? Expect to pay $50K to $1.5M to get the deal done

As ACCC merger reform collides with a shifting transfer system, saving an aged care home could soon cost operators months in delays and hundreds of thousands in filing fees before a single resident moves. Two big obstacles have been added to helping...

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Wellness is the new insurance policy for land lease operators

In a model that doesn’t profit from turnover, wellness isn’t window dressing – it’s the smartest investment in community value a land lease operator can make. Land lease communities sell a dream: freedom, lifestyle, connection. The gap?...

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Show me the movement: villages at a wellness crossroads

As retirement villages drift closer to aged care, operators face a simple choice: become God’s waiting rooms or position themselves as positive care environments that help residents feel better in themselves. The village market is moving fast –...

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Walking the walk: is retirement village “wellness” just smoke and mirrors?

Everyone in retirement living now markets “wellness” now. Put it on a wall, in a brochure, over a pool and you can charge more – right? Not if residents and rivals are doing what they’ve started doing: looking past the sizzle to see if...

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Lauren Broomham

4 hours ago

Opinion

Home care won’t catch up – unless the rules change

We said horror stories were coming and here they are. This week’s headlines have been dominated by an assessment system that can’t assess, a program that can’t keep up, and older Australians stranded in the gap. The numbers are no longer...

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Lauren Broomham

06 Nov 2025

Retirement and Community Living

New issue of SATURDAY magazine: Is your “wellness” just window dressing?

In Australia, “wellness” in retirement living has become a marketing reflex – glossy promises, thin delivery. Residents are savvier now. They look past brochures to what’s on the ground: is there a real program, real people, real results?...

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Lauren Broomham

04 Nov 2025

Home Care

“One-size-fits-all reform will shrink rural aged care,” warns regional provider

Regional aged care models risk being collateral damage under the new Support at Home system, with co-contribution rules and transport pricing threatening both consumer access and provider viability, warns Staying in Place coordinator Helen Morton...

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Lauren Broomham

30 Oct 2025