industry & reform
Where to now ?
10 agedcareinsite . com . au
Why following the recommendations of the royal commission may not be the best idea .
By Mike Rungie
We asked a range of people , “ Will aged care be way better in 10 years after the huge effort and expense the Royal Commission Report is asking of all Australians ?” Why won ’ t anyone say yes ?
Sure , they like bits of it … rights based , more funding , more home care packages , new skills , new protections , better governance . But we couldn ’ t find anyone who thought aged care would be something people loved , would support people to maximise this frail stage of life , and would have the whole community valuing and participating in older people ’ s lives just like we do in younger people ’ s lives .
So , then we asked what they thought would really change aged care to be like this . Their answers surprised us in that they were so different to the report . They said someone needed to work with older people to become clearer about what kind of lives they really wanted to live , not what kind of care they wanted . Then they told us that aged care leadership needed to be desperate to deliver on this . They wanted an aged care that the community could engage with , that younger Australians would want to contribute to , that was more likely to maximise this beautiful but challenging life stage .
What we actually got was a report that ’ s asking us to fix the unfixable . And , it ’ s asking us to give our all to this . And goodness we are seeing this already . Everyone ’ s immersed in this and nothing else . New legislation , new rules , new processes , new accountabilities , new governance , new funding , new financing , new oversights , new politics . We will have time for nothing else . And that ’ s what the Empire wants . So , what should we do ? Build the stuff that the Royal Commission didn ’ t ask for but might just deliver an aged care that people would love .
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Do providers really think the rest of us are going to pay a levy for a lot more of the same ?
Don ’ t worry , there will be plenty of people fixing the current system … they won ’ t miss you .
This stuff ’ s called transformation . Sectors are ready for transformation when they are not meeting customers ’ expectations , stuck in old ways of doing things , not sustainable , not using new technologies and learnings , and have a leadership that ’ s not desperate to understand and meet customer expectations . And this is certainly what the Royal Commission found . So why didn ’ t they recommend sector transformation as well as the 148 reform recommendations ? We don ’ t think the Empire likes older people or wants us to transform aged care . So , we might have to do it ourselves .
What would happen to aged care if the Royal Commission had made its first recommendation that all aged care CEOs had to live in one of their facilities for a month . Could anyone seriously continue to offer the current service after that experience ? So , transformation starts with transforming leadership , not whacking it from Canberra .
Transformation then follows a path of co-design with older people , a new narrative of good frail lives , working in entrepreneurial ecosystems , establishing long term relationships with universities and others , learning from iterative service prototyping , applying technology to the narrative , learning what the new ‘ good ’ looks like , new funding sources that build on people liking aged care , and always transforming leaders . Does this sound more likely to drive ‘ good ’ change , and more like what we signed up for ?
It ’ s going to be hard for us to resist the glamour of the Empire ’ s bidding to spend the next 10 years totally immersed in the 148 reform recommendations . And those that do the Empire ’ s bidding will certainly be rewarded for it . But do providers really think the rest of us are going to pay a levy for a lot more of the same ? So , why not resist ? Why not exchange your conferences and overseas study trips that you can ’ t take anyway for a month in one of your facilities , join up with others doing the same , then engage in a very fresh and simpler transformation process ? ■
Mike Rungie is a member of a number of boards and committees including ACFA , Every Age Counts , Global Centre for Modern Ageing and GAP Productive Ageing Committee .