Seniors have ‘strong aversion’ to institutional environments

The aged care sector needs to reinvent itself if it wants to appeal to tomorrow’s consumers, many of whom are already redefining what it means to grow older, writes Laura Demasi.

The aged care sector needs to reinvent itself if it wants to appeal to tomorrow’s consumers, many of whom are already redefining what it means to grow older, writes Laura Demasi.

The social and cultural implications of the unprecedented demographic disruption arising from Australia’s ageing population will demand that the ageing paradigm is redefined. The ‘script’ for how we live and what we value in this second act of life is being completely re-written.

Laura Demasi
Laura Demasi

Retirement from work is no longer retirement from life. In fact, it’s the opposite: a second act, a ‘second life’ where growth, learning and discovery become more important, not less – even as people move into their 80s and beyond.

But the very concept of age, of what it means to ‘get old’ or to ‘be old’ is already changing and will only continue to be redefined as today’s Baby Boomers – who have already thrown out the rule book on getting older – enter their 70s, 80s and beyond.

Age is increasingly viewed as a social construct by Australians aged 60 and over. They resent the baggage and expectations that society imposes on them; that suddenly they become an ‘old’ person, stop being themselves and participating in life simply because their age starts with a six, seven or eight.

The idea that this time of life is the beginning of the end and the first step towards frailty is woefully out-dated – as this 74 year-old research participant demonstrated:

“I train every day. Mountain biking in the morning and speed walking after dinner,” he said. “You’ve got to do what you can to stay fit. As you get older you still want to get a buzz out of something.”

Another participant, male, 72, added:

“I expect to just keep living my life the way I do now in
the future. Some of the guys I swim with are in their 80s and I expect to be doing the same. I don’t see myself sitting down and doing crosswords or moving into a retirement village where they tell you when it’s time to eat your dinner.”

It’s abundantly clear that this cohort is already resisting the current ‘support’ model of ageing, demanding instead to be empowered and autonomous, to continue to be heard, to be relevant and to impact on life and society. They expect to maintain the lifestyle they have today well into the next decade and beyond.

The aged care and retirement living sectors will need to utterly reinvent themselves to appeal to this cohort of people who are already refusing to follow the same model of ageing as their parents. For them, the future won’t be about winding down and slipping into social irrelevance. It will be the opposite; being active and highly engaged – physically, socially and intellectually.

Our research with Australians in their 60s and 70s illustrates that this cohort show a strong aversion to a future ‘cordoned off’ from the rest of society in homes and villages – any kind of institutionalised environment that regulates their personal freedom and symbolises the ‘last stop’ on their journey through life.

This kind of environment simply doesn’t align with their vision of an active and stimulating future where they will demand to be relevant and respected, and to matter.

Avoiding aged care

Many have already recently interacted with the sector with their own elderly parents and didn’t like what they saw. They are intent on avoiding any kind of aged care in the future.

As one research participant, a 61 year-old woman, said:

“My mother is in a nursing home. They take good care of her but it’s not for me. I won’t go into one of the places.”

Another, a male aged 68, also felt confronted by his experience with the aged care sector with his elderly father-in-law:

“It was incredibly depressing seeing him in there. It’s like they’re waiting to die. It’s made me determined to avoid that in my future. I’m going to stay as strong and healthy as I can so I don’t end up in one of those places. I won’t let it happen.”

Even those in their 80s who are in good health are resistant to the idea. Another female participant, 80, said:

“My brother is in a nursing home. It’s so depressing in there. I can only handle going to see him once a week.”

This 83 year-old female was very unambiguous in her extreme distain at the idea of ending up in a nursing home:

“I’d rather die than go into aged care. You can’t walk into one of those places without wanting to vomit. The quality of the food is disgusting. One of the very last pleasures in life is something nice to
eat and you’re served up slop.”

The numbers clearly show that older Australians are resisting the shift to retirement living or aged care: the preference is still overwhelming to ‘age in place’ in their own homes. The majority – 78 per cent of Australians aged 70 and over still live in a free-standing house and only 5 per cent live in apartments.

Current model too rigid

The financial model and value proposition of aged care and retirement living will also need to be reinvented. Research participants believed that the current model was too rigid and generally ‘a bad deal’ for the consumer and were already thinking of other options.

The sentiment is best captured by this 83-year-old male participant, who had only this year decided to sell the four-bedroom family home he’d owned for 45 years:

“We’ve bought a new apartment off the plan – just up the road where we know people, where my wife feels safe. You have to be 55 to buy in but it’s not a retirement village. It’s a better way financially. I don’t see the point of retirement villages, you pay $800,000 or $900,000 – what if you don’t like it and you sell and then they take a fair percentage? At least this way, with an apartment, if we don’t like it we sell in a few years and we don’t lose anything.”

It’s clear that to attract tomorrow’s consumers, whose values and expectations from life are radically different to today’s aged care or retirement living residents, the sector will need to reinvent itself.

It will need to get to know this new consumer quickly and get to work on designing the kind of lifestyle, services and experiences that they will be seeking as they enter their 70s, 80s and beyond.

The sector will need to transform aged care from an ‘institutionalised’ environment that screams ‘this is the sad end of the road’ into something else entirely, that is also based on a more attractive financial model.

That much is clear. The question remains: is the sector up for the challenge?

Laura Demasi is a research director at global research firm Ipsos and the author of the new research study Second Life: The Age of Agelessness.

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6 thoughts on “Seniors have ‘strong aversion’ to institutional environments

  1. An interesting article and research by Laura.
    It does remind us of how important independence and living in one’s own home is, to being “empowered and autonomous”.
    Our founder Doris Taylor expressed this notion over 60 years ago, when she started the concept we know today of Meals on Wheels, providing nourishment and social contact and keeping older Australians engaged in their community and out of hospital and formalised care.
    Rather than thinking of Meals on Wheels as ‘this is the sad end of the road’ to quote Laura, many new customers are seeing the concept of “more than just a meal” as empowering.
    Thanks for the insights Laura.

  2. Very interesting article. Specially for me, I work for an organisation that manages villages and nursing homes.
    I think however, it seems that it is the retirees who need to do their homework.
    Retirement Villages and Aged Care facilities (AKA nursing homes) are very different, and I think they may be getting the 2 confused.
    In a retirement village you live a completely independent life and no one tells you when you can or cannot have dinner. No one tells you how to live your life.
    Yes you pay levies, BUT you don’t pay water, strata, council rates or stamp duty.
    You are definitely not isolated when you move into a village, if anything you are more likely to make friends as your neighbours will be like-minded individuals.
    I’m not sure what retirement places the participants quoted in this article have visited, but 4/5 days I order my lunch from the nursing home kitchen and it is very tasty (though personally I would prefer bigger size portions).
    I really enjoyed the article and YES, the market is changing and YES people want to stay active longer, BUT the boomers changing the social and cultural norms also need to do their research and break down preconceived ideas that may not always be correct.

  3. Great to see this article, though it only focuses on those who are fit and healthy.
    As a 63 year old with mother in Aged Care because of physical disability, I agree, and want to highlight the plight of those who are in Aged Care – many of those have a strong aversion to it too. Certainly my mother does. And being driven by the financial motive of large aged care ownership groups is just driving things to the lowest common denominator.
    Great research, thanks.

  4. Im 75, and have been checking out retirement villiages and the like. After the 4th I joined Exit International.There is NO WAY Im going into one of those places-ever. However I have finally found a possible workable option, the Australian Unity development on Rathdowne st Carlton, in Melbourne which I could consider: its an excellent location. It is-unsuriprisingy- attracting other over educated and still very active clients…. yes it seems to meet our requirements (Fibre direct NBN wiring being ##1 of course), and close to melbourne and rmit uni libraries as well as hospitals and heaps of restaurant and arts facilities all around. Unlike the claims above this retirement village levies about 1k/p month for services-but you still have energy and internet to handle yourself(99 year lease properties, well finished). This is the kind of place that needs to be developed-fast… and not just for Boomers(who many in my generation find a bit technically backward).. and I had been considering making up a consortium to build some.. at Least AU have begun to get the message.

  5. I’m loving the themes and sentiment coming through the article and these comments.

    My colleagues and I at Linkages could not agree more wholeheartedly. There should be a stage of second life, full of growth, learning and discovery. .

    We established LinkAges to give people in this second stage of life another choice. This involves access to experienced life planners who know the current system but can start planning for the future in a different way – designed for the customer to exercise their voice.

    We believe effective planning for the future is the best way of ensuring access to good support, good information and a good second life.

  6. Hi all
    Pleased to hear that you enjoyed the article – I really enjoyed your comments. Marcus, great to hear that you have found an option that is putting your needs first – which is exactly what should be happening. Sounds like much more fun than Exit International!
    Grace, yes people do get aged care/ retirement living confused but they both signify ‘getting old,’ which many people are intent on resisting, so they tend to end up in the category in people’s minds.
    Jan, yes, agree the situation is very different for those with disabilities but like you say, that doesn’t mean that they too are should not be entitled to live an environment that facilitates as much independence as is possible.
    Thanks everyone
    Laura Demasi

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