Meeting the Needs of Our Elderly
Over the last six decades, residential aged care has grown to become a mainstream part of social service delivery in Australia; it is highly regulated, receives significant government support through recurrent subsidies and is a large employer. The sector has also seen the emergence of a significant – and growing – private, for-profit presence, including a number of publicly listed corporate operators. One of the questions regularly put to me is; given these changes, why does Baptcare retain such a significant interest in residential aged care?
Residential aged care provides services to one of the most vulnerable groups in Australia: the frail aged. According to the latest population projections released by the ABS, the number of people aged 85 years or over is likely to increase rapidly over the next 50 years, from 344,000 people in 2007 to about three million people in 2056. By then, people aged 85 years or over will make up 7% of Australia’s population, compared to only 1.6% in 2007. In that context, it is healthy to have a mix of for-profit and not-for-profit providers involved. Such a mix should produce a sector that is efficient as well as innovative, and one which advocates for strong protections for such a vulnerable population group. In the face of such an important social change, can faith-based welfare providers afford not to be involved?
The legitimacy of our involvement in aged care is determined not just by the broader need, but also by the form of our involvement. Baptcare needs to demonstrate that its involvement is distinctively Christian and charitable. We seek to do this in a variety of ways.
One such way is through a demonstrable commitment to relatively disadvantaged communities. Our investment in the re-built St Hilary’s Community in Morwell is an example of this. Other than St Hilary’s, there is no other high care provider there.
Also, whilst the financial analysis of the proposed investment in St Hilary’s revealed it would be sustainable, Baptcare would have earned higher returns on the funds required by leaving them in the bank, rather than re-building. Maximising returns however is not our mission.
Another distinctive aspect of our service provision is Baptcare’s commitment to chaplaincy. We currently fund approximately $0.5m p.a. in residential aged care chaplaincy. This investment is essentially unfunded by government.
We actively seek to admit residents who are economically disadvantaged. Of our seven aged care facilities, ‘supported residents’ make up almost half the residents in four of those seven, and about one quarter of the residents in the remaining three. In planning our Hedley Sutton re-development in Camberwell, we deliberately chose not to develop any ‘extra service’ (akin to premium, user-pays services) components there, in order to continue to optimise access to the facility for supported residents. In addition, we are gradually increasing our access to independent living units (ILUs) by ‘tithing’ our units for disadvantaged entrants. This has been implemented in our assisted living units at Strathalan and in our independent living units at Westhaven. Our goal is to gradually deliver this outcome at all of our ILU sites.
We have a long and proud heritage in residential aged care service provision. Continued involvement will require ongoing change and adaptation to the many challenges that arise. However, it is an endeavour to which we continue to be called to make a distinctive contribution.
End 1