Aged care organisations should stop using bureaucratic language when talking about the services they deliver, according to Brightwater CEO, Penny Flett.

Speaking at the Aged and Community Services Austraila Conference in Perth, the WA Australian of the Year said it was time to talk about ageing in a new way.

“I feel very strongly about language because it is extremely powerful,” said Dr Flett.

“Ordinary people out there use ordinary languages to discuss our services but we continue to use government language which obfuscates.”

“Instead, we really should be translating the government language into ordinary terms.”

Dr Flett providers should not be using terms such as “aged”, “care”, “support” and “baby boomers”.

In their place she said service they should talk about “elderhood”, “olderhood” and “personhood”.

“Language designates power and when we use ‘program language’ we are putting the power into the hands of the government, not the service users,” Dr Flett said.

She added that aged care providers should position themselves as experts and use a positive voice to spread their message.

“For years since I have been involved with this industry, we have been a group of whingers – but we have to change,” Dr Flett said.