RETIREMENT living communities are well-placed to deliver personalised support services as new national reforms give people greater choice in their home care.
The Government's home care package reform, which into effect at the end of February, gives consumers more choice in their care and who delivers it.
The Retirement Living Council recently commissioned Ansell Strategic to unpack the opportunities for the retirement living sector.
The Delivering Home Care in Retirement Villages report and accompanying guide for operators finds retirement communities are effective and efficient environments in which to deliver at-home care. A growing number of operators are expanding their service offerings in response to reforms.
According to lead researcher Cam Ansell, the reforms will "bring about new innovation in services and building design that will transform the retirement village sector as the baby boomers enter the market and are empowered to make choices".
Ansell says retirement living communities are age-friendly, have communal infrastructure, such as consulting rooms for visiting GPs, and often have nurses on site.
"They have the capacity to support people who would otherwise be socially isolated, to address niggling health problems before they become big issues, all the while giving the taxpayer best bang for buck," he said.
National pilot studies have found that effective provision of home care delivery in retirement living settings can delay admission into residential aged care and deliver significant savings to tax payers.
Residential aged care to support 192,000 Australians currently costs government $10.6 billion each year. In comparison, home care packages for 73,000 older Australians over the 2015 financial year cost $1.3 billion.
Ben Myers is executive director of Retirement Living at the Property Council of Australia. He said retirement living operators are presented with several options as they look to deliver home care, including becoming an approved care provider or partnering with an already established provider.
"We've identified a range of potential cost savings and value-adds for village operators," Myers says.
For example, "villages co-located with residential aged care can share services and administration support, which can drive down costs," Myers explains.
Some savings can be passed directly onto clients, the report finds. For example, transport expenses can represent up to five per cent of revenue and up to 10 per cent of direct service costs. Retirement village operators and clients will benefit from the proximity of residents, thereby reducing travel time and costs.
"The retirement village model provides the perfect platform to support home care services, and can address many of the challenges our society faces as our population ages," Myers said.