Many people don’t know there is a difference between a retirement village and aged care and see the whole seniors accommodation space as this amorphous sector interchangeably referred to either retirement villages or aged care.
But there are big differences between aged care and retirement villages:
Retirement Villages
- Retirement villages are designed for older people to live independently in apartments or villas.
- Retirement villages are governed by the state or territory retirement villages legislation.
- There is no government funding for retirement villages, therefore there is no assessment of your personal financial situation. If you have the money to settle your retirement village purchase, you can move in!
- Anyone acceptable to the village operator can move into a retirement village. Village operators, however, will identify desirable characteristics such as age, work situation and ability to live independently as key criteria for prospective residents.
- Care and home support are optional and usually brought in by external providers.
- Average entry age is late 70’s, with an 8-9 year average tenure.
Aged Care
- Aged care facilities are designed for people requiring high levels of care and supervision, and assistance with domestic living tasks on a daily basis.
- Aged care comes under Commonwealth legislation and applies to all states and territories.
- Aged care is heavily subsidised by the Commonwealth Government, with the level of funding received dependent upon an assessment of your personal financial situation.
- Entry to aged care involves the potential resident undergoing an independent ACAT (Aged Care Assessment Team) assessment and being identified as requiring a high-enough level of acuity and care to eligible.
- Meals, domestic and nursing care are part of the package and delivered by facility staff.
- Average entry age is early 80’s with a 1-3 year average tenure.
Hopefully you now understand the huge differences between aged care and retirement villages!
Aged Care in retirement villages
Where confusion can really set in is when you see retirement village operators advertising as aged care – think Odyssey, Seasons, Freedom, LDK, etc.
So what is all this about?
One of the biggest issues with operating a registered aged care facility is the amount of compliance and red tape involved. But what if you could offer aged care in a retirement village and not have to comply with all those pesky regulations?
The result – retirement villages offering aged care-level services (or close to).
The benefit to the retirement village operator is that they can deliver high levels of care through a resident’s self-funding or government-funded home care package, without having to comply with all the rules, regulations, staffing and infrastructure that comes with being an aged care operator. The benefit to the resident is that they can receive high levels of support and care in an independent living environment (retirement village) without having to move into a residential aged care facility, because let’s face it, no-one aspires to move into aged care.
You should really consider this type of accommodation as an alternative to aged care, not as a retirement village or independent living product. It is ideal for people not quite ready for aged care, or who would prefer to live more independently than a residential aged care facility allows and have the financial resources to spend on their care – it is not a cheaper alternative to aged care by any stretch, rather, it’s a solution for the wealthy.
I have concerns with the “aged care in retirement village” product: These facilities were innovated to avoid the compliance and regulation (and cost) of residential aged care. Regulations exist for a reason, yet these facilities operate in a loophole somewhere between the home care and aged care sectors. The Government is aware of this loophole and is moving to plug the gap to ensure residents are protected. This segment of the industry is likely to be caught up in any changes to aged care or home care legislation in the future, which may make the offering unviable.
Choice is good however, and for my money, I would much prefer to receive my care in a retirement village unit, where I can have a pet and people visit or stay over and I’m not bossed around by nurses restricting how much wine I can drink with my dinner.