Village operators openly and willingly tell us that retirement villages are now the new ‘low care’.
But after weeks of discussion with residents (pictured below), operators and key care providers, we have come to the conclusion the retirement village sector could be walking blindly into a duty of care, legal and possible media disaster.
More residents have expectations that they will be OK at home in the village for the rest of their lives.
This is anchored in the rhetoric the government will provide home care to all and retirement villages are the ideal environment, being designed for ageing safely, being efficient for home care delivery, and the fact the operators provide a paternal style of interest in the welfare of the resident.
Consequently new residents and their families expect moving to the village solves all their future care requirements.
But the village can’t deliver low care with certainty into the future.
Workforce, cost and increasing volume of ageing Australians with higher and longer acuity, plus dementia, will overwhelm the suppliers.
Moving residents to hospitals as a strategy is also under challenge, with hospital and aged care beds increasingly full.
And there is already black shoots of despair. This subject is the most discussed in our DCM Institute Professional Development Days (encompassing 600 village managers nationally) and the basis of weekly calls we get from village managers under duress and in despair.
Expectations not delivered is now a significant caseload with the leading lawyers in the village sector.
Check out SATURDAY
In this coming edition of SATURDAY, we have spoken to residents, dementia specialists, home care providers and more.
They all concede that there is not a clear understanding and expectation of what the final years look like in services. And are alarmed when they do see the numbers.
As Lifestyle Communities has learnt this week, unclear communication with families and residents can be very expensive.
Check out SATURDAY if you’re a subscriber, and if not you can purchase a sub HERE, at $250 for 12 months. A fraction of one hour of your potential legal bills.
