industry & reform
Unifying aged
care services
Danielle Ballantine. Photo: Supplied
CEO aims to solve aged care sector fragmentation.
By Louise Durack
T
here’s a lot of rhetoric in the aged care sector about
how best to reform it, admits Danielle Ballantine, but she
reckons her Sydney-based organisation is heading in the
right direction thanks to an approach focused on simplifying the
user experience.
The CEO of Your Side, who has been nominated for the
prestigious social award Impact 25, says she’s determined to put
aged care services on the map. She has started with a progressive
approach that aims to better connect older people with a wide
support system that encompasses all the services they may need.
“We all know the aged care sector business model is very
fragmented,” she says.
“This is our biggest issue and one which will probably take a
good five years to reform in the wake of the royal commission’s
recommendations.
“I know it’s a cliché to say the client needs to be at the centre of
the policy-making process, but this is exactly right; it’s more than
just saying ‘I’m client centred’.
“Really, the only way to break down the fragmentation issues
that we see is for aged care organisations to work with other
industries to offer a coordinated range of required services that
can be easily navigated by older Australians.”
18 agedcareinsite.com.au
Ballantine admits this could mean more consolidation within the
industry, as well as more mergers and new innovative technology
service approaches that have not been seen in the past.
“We may have to rethink the future, as we know now with
this increasing ageing population that clients are expecting an
increased range of quality services.”
She says the organisation’s strategy involves a User Experience
(UX) team for the aged care system.
“In other sectors such as retail, technology and hospitality, the
user experience has already been well established. These teams
have looked very closely at how the customer has their needs
delivered – what works and what doesn’t – and realised that
a seamless experience, where they can get most or all of their
services and brands coordinated and delivered together at a single
point, is what works most effectively.
“This ‘pain point’ of coordinating care still exists greatly within
the aged care sector, and this is something that we’re currently
trying to overcome.
“It’s no good expecting a client to have to deal with three
different organisations for their basic services – in many
circumstances it’s just too complicated for an older Australian
to explain to three different people their personal situation and
homecare needs.
“We are aiming to be a multi-service organisation – a bit like
a department store for the retail client with multiple brands and
services under one roof, where they only need to say once to one
person what they actually need.”
Ballantine acknowledges that human services has matured a
lot over the past few years in terms of changing customer needs,
and that the different government-funded models – the early
entry Commonwealth Home Support Programme, the Home
Care Package Model and the Residential Care Model – are all
somewhat fragmented.
“Unfortunately all require significant cost to patients to be able
to move to new funding models, and this will involve hundreds of
thousands of organisations; it’s very hard to say if this should be
done over a period of time or more quickly.
“For some organisations, sustainability will be a major issue
regarding how they move from one funding model to another,
especially if an organisation is on single funding for a single
service. Being able to continue to provide those services with an
uncertain future will be hard.
“In any case, we are trying to work within these funding model
constraints as efficiently as possible to get services to clients as
they need them and eliminate some of that complexity.
“I think we’re achieving this, but obviously there’s always more to
be done. I’m confident we’re addressing needs so clients can more
easily navigate the sector.”
In common with many others in aged care, Ballantine also
admits that access to a skilled workforce is one of the biggest
challenges faced.
“We have a maturing workforce and a rapidly growing customer
base, and in the next 2–3 years we will need over 100,000 care
workers nationally. To be able to attract and train care workers is a
big issue.”
Previous winners of the Impact 25 award include Malcolm
Turnbull, Rosie Batty and Julia Gillard. Winners have contributed
to raising the awareness of social issues such as domestic abuse,
climate change and homelessness. However, nobody in aged care
has ever been named before.
The winners of Impact 25 will be announced on 19 March. ■