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This study investigates the relationship between aged care accommodation pricing options (refundable accommodation deposits (RADs), daily accommodation payment (DAPs) and concessional) and the profitability of aged care facilities.

Data are obtained from 33 aged care facilities across New South Wales in Australia. This study uses multivariate regression for analyses.

The estimation results suggest that higher level of RADs has a negative and significant relationship with profitability of aged care facilities. The authors also find that concessional pricing option is positively associated with higher profitability.

These findings may benefit aged care operators by reviewing their strategies and portfolios to enhance their financial performance. The results are also useful to the Australian Government to further explore how the removal of RADs may transform the aged care sector's profitability.

Quality of care in the residential aged sector has changed over the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to examine these changes from the perspectives of staff to identify factors influencing quality of residential aged care, and the role and influence of an aged care accreditation programme.

Focus groups were held with 66 aged care staff from 11 Australian aged care facilities. Data from semi-structured interviews were analysed to capture categories representing participant views.

Participants reported two factors stimulating change: developments in the aged care regulatory and policy framework, and rising consumer expectations. Four corresponding effects on service quality were identified: increasing complexity of resident care, renewed built environments of aged care facilities, growing focus on resident-centred care and the influence of accreditation on resident quality of life. The accreditation programme was viewed as maintaining minimum standards of quality throughout regulatory and social change, yet was considered to lack capacity of itself to explicitly promote or improve resident quality of life.

For an increasingly complex aged care population, regulatory and societal change has led to a shift in service provision from institutional care models to one that is becoming more responsive to consumer expectations. The capacity of long-established and relatively static accreditation standards to better accommodate changing consumer needs comes into question.

This is the first study to examine the relationship between accreditation and residential aged care service quality from the perspectives of staff, and offers a nuanced view of “quality” in this setting.

Ageing populations, although exhibiting marked differences across countries and cultures, are a global phenomenon. Old‐age dependency ratios in most developed countries are projected to double by the year 2050. In Australia there will be a strain on economic growth as a large part of the population moves from pre‐retirement to post‐retirement age over the next 25 years. A disproportionate amount of this strain will be concentrated in aged‐care housing or retirement accommodation. Current evidence suggests that existing housing stock for older people is inadequate. As the Australian population ages, the maintenance and long‐term performance of retirement housing is a key concern of government and housing providers. This study looked at four aged‐care or retirement providers across Australia and examined the performance of the current housing stock managed by these providers. The interviews revealed that housing design decisions in retirement stock, although critically important to the changing needs of occupants and the adequate supply of suitable housing, are often ill‐considered. The findings critically question the idea of simply building ‘more of the same’ to relieve demand. This study has major implications for the future of Australian retirement housing, especially as the population ages dramatically.

In light of the fact that the “baby boomer” generation is moving into early old age, the purpose of this paper is to examine what aspects of ageing and old age concerned an age cohort of 25 gay men aged 60 plus.

The primary data for this paper came from interviews with 25 men aged 60 and older who were recruited in Auckland, London, Manchester, Melbourne, and New York. Interviewees were contacted by a variety of means, such as by e-mail introductions, advertisements placed on social media, and recommendations of mutual friends or acquaintances. Once contacted, the men were sent a plain-language statement outlining the purpose of the study and the intention to publish the results and were asked to sign and return a consent form. Narrative identity was central to understandings of the men’s lives got from analysing their interview transcripts.

Analysis of extracts from their life stories showed the men interviewed for this paper drew on two principal narratives when discussing their apprehensions about growing old. The first related to general fears or concerns about old age that would be fairly common among members of the general population. The second narrative related to gay-specific fears or concerns. Significant claims: that class affects gay men’s experience of old age just as it does for everyone else; and that fears of being ostracised because of their sexuality were strongest when the men spoke about aged-accommodation settings.

More research is needed on gay men’s experience of in-home supported care and residential care to see if the reality of the heterosexism and/or homophobia matches the fears of some in this sample.

This is a relatively new field and there is a growing number of researchers examining the ageing concerns and experiences of the GLBT population. The originality of this paper lies in the international sample on which it is based, its use of narrative analysis, and its relevance to policy makers as well as to members of the GLBT population, carers, and owners/managers of aged-care accommodation facilities.

This paper draws upon findings from a secondary analysis of suspected financial abuse cases in files of the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal in Queensland, Australia. The paper explores the association between formal and semi‐formal asset management arrangements and suspected financial abuse cases. The role of families as formal asset managers is also considered.

This paper aims to provide insights into Arabic-Australian community attitudes regarding social innovation of a new shared model of accommodation for the 65+ age group to facilitate independent behavior within a shared living environment.

A survey of 520 people of whom 65 per cent were Arabic speakers either by mother or second language. Survey responses were filtered to Arabic speakers and further analyzed to identify groups characterized by the latent attitudes underlying responses.

The results confirmed the presence of two small groups representing in aggregate 13 per cent of sample variance who have positive attitudes toward 65+ age group shared accommodation for either themselves or their parents. These respondents focused on companionship and cultural factors rather than potential financial or medical benefits from the new model.

The application of an empirical Bayes methodology to the limited data in this research implicitly restricts the interpretation of the results to the Australian-Arabic community that was investigated.

The results of this research provide a sound basis for private sector interest in exploring differentiated architectures and business models that will facilitate choices of shared accommodation by the Australian-Arabic 65+ year age group.

This finding aligns with increasing health and mobility more widely among the rapidly growing 65+ year old segment of the Australian population and with recent Australian Government restructuring of age care to introduce greater personal accountability for self-care.

This research is original and important in setting future directions for expanding the richness of choice in Australian-Arabic community retirement living.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the consequences of closing institutions for people with disabilities and accommodating them in Supported Residential Services. Issues that had been raised by an advocacy movement included shortcomings in privacy, dignity, control and meaningful activity in institutions, which led to their closure. The study applied a quality of life measurement which was commensurate with the ethical paradigms of welfare, autonomy and communitarianism to investigate whether community living in supported residences produced fulfilling lives and better outcomes than the institutions they replaced. Twenty-seven people with a disability and/or mental health issue in Supported Residential Services in Victoria, Australia were interviewed using the ‘Lehman Quality of Life Questionnaire’. An investigation into the Quality of Life of one group of de-institutionalised residents revealed that issues remain. People in the Supported Residences appear to be no better off than when they were in institutions. The study identified that it was common for a resident to have no phone, no friends outside the residence, little or no family contact, no disposable money and no job. However, since there was no research conducted before de-institutionalisation, the impact of the policy change is difficult to determine. Applying ethical measures, such as the Capabilities approach, reveals that issues remain. Practical implications from this study are first, that positive measures need to be added to de-institutionalisation to achieve satisfactory outcomes and second, that policy makers would be better informed and likely more effective if data were collected before and after significant changes.