Time Well Spent

It’s not news that we need more beds. More providers, more investment. more innovation. At the same time, it’s getting harder and harder to enter into the market, harder to make a return, and harder to speak up about what sustainability actually requires. So where do we go from here? Today Dane and Rose are talking with Mel Argent, from Rockpool Residential Aged Care. They’re talking about everything from the stigma around making profit, what Rockpool is doing differently with their new homes, how the current system is making it impossible to get funding and questioning whether our compliance settings are fit for purpose. Key moments: 0:00 -  Why Rockpool going back to startup mode gave them a rare opportunity to redesign everything under the new Act 5:30 - The non-negotiables Mel insisted on during the Regis negotiation 7:28 - Why can’t profit and good care co-exist in the Aged Care sector? 12:33 - The funding catch-22 no one talks about but will seriously impact our ability to create 80,000 beds 16:17 -  “I can’t believe this is aged care” – what a Rockpool home is designed to feel like 25:23 - The systems, technology and legislative shifts Mel is rethinking before opening the next homes 28:41 - Are care minutes reshaping the workforce in ways we didn’t intend? 33:50 - What is the 5-Star Rating System actually measuring? 39:00 - What would happen if we stopped competing with each other and started collaborating? 43:00 - Restrictive practice, reporting, and whether fear is driving behaviour 55:53 - What bold leadership looks like in aged care right now — Visit www.thepurefoodco.com to hear more about how The Pure Food Co could help with your meal service. Find out how your organisation is performing with Stewart Brown by visiting www.stewartbrown.com.au/financial-surveys Connect with Dane and Rose or the Podcast on Linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-mitchell-763ba524 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rose-plater-0a111a129 https://www.linkedin.com/company/time-well-spent-podcast If you want to book a free Reablement Planning Workshop with Optimum Allied Health, visit www.opthealth.com.au/tws If you’re starting to scope out your next project, get in touch with Paynters over at www.paynters.com.au

We talk a lot about fixing aged care. And a lot of it comes down to the system we’ve built. But what if the problem isn’t just the system… it’s the way we’ve designed the entire experience of ageing? In this episode, Dane and Rose sit down with Paul Browne from LDK, who’s built a model trying to challenge exactly that. From the “one move promise”… to why today’s residents expect something completely different… to what happens when you stop building aged care like a hospital and start thinking about it like hospitality. Because if the expectations of this generation have changed… the question is whether the sector is actually keeping up. Key moments: 0:00 - How does a police officer from QLD end up building a retirement village empire? 4:23 - Today’s residents have travelled, spent and lived differently… so why are we still building for a completely different generation?  7:43 - The gap between retirement living and aged care, and why the system makes it harder than it needs to be  8:51 - The promise that shaped the entire LDK model: never having to move into a nursing home  12:53 -  Why exit fees are becoming harder to justify, and what a simpler “money in, money out” model looks like 23:08 - Do residents actually care about being around death… or have we just assumed they do?  27:52 - Why running aged care like a hotel might be closer to the answer than running it like a hospital  32:10 -  If people are living longer and staying longer… what does that do to the viability of the model?  39:44 - There’s nowhere for people to go… so where does that leave retirement villages and hospitals?  47:13 - What changes when you stop trying to fit inside government frameworks and build outside them instead  50:15 - “Support at Home” is here… but is it actually working the way it was intended to?  52:04 - Could this model work outside high-income areas… or is it only viable for a certain demographic?  1:02:29 - Why most operators can’t replicate this model and what actually breaks when you try to scale it.  — And if you want to connect with Dane and Rose or the Podcast, you can find them on Linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-mitchell-763ba524 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rose-plater-0a111a129 https://www.linkedin.com/company/time-well-spent-podcast