ONLY IN SATURDAY: big boxes are out – new report heralds shift from residential care to community care

A new and frank paper from the Global Ageing Network (GAN) has outlined the opportunities for retirement living operators to capitalise on the shift away from residential care to community-based concepts through innovation and digitisation. The 80-page ‘Call to Governments: Ageing and Long-Term Care’ paper is the work of the Global Ageing Network (GAN) represents over 20,000 aged care operators. Dr. Jiri Horecky is Chair plus President of the European Ageing Network and co-author of the paper and will be speaking via video at the LEADERS SUMMIT. The paper states that around the world:

“Governments are struggling with the increasing need for support and care for the ageing population. They are, in many cases, rethinking their responsibility for financing professional long-term care.” “Many governments are freezing or cutting budgets for the long-term care sector… These cuts put the providers under high pressure to deliver a higher volume of care at the same level of quality with the same or fewer funds.”

Quality of life over quality of care

According to the report, too much emphasis is currently placed on the technical quality of care, and not enough on the way it is provided or how it impacts on a recipient’s quality of life. While the GAN believes that the concept of aged care homes will still be needed in future, the Network argues that high-level care doesn’t need to happen in an institutional setting. For example, it could take place through home care services in apartments, with individualised services co-created with the clients and their families. In short, community-based concepts where care is delivered into the retirement village, land lease community or Community Apartment Project (CAP) all stand to win big. Read the full story in the latest issue of SATURDAY – subscribe here.