Co-located care and village life focus of overseas educational trip
In a first for the aged care study tour specialists, SAGE has teamed up with New Zealand’s retirement village member association to offer Australian executives an opportunity to see how their counterparts across the ditch are leading the way with integrated communities.
In a first for the aged care study tour specialists, SAGE has teamed up with New Zealand’s retirement village member association to offer Australian executives an opportunity to see how their counterparts across the ditch are leading the way with integrated communities.
The trip forms part of the study tour company’s 10th anniversary celebrations and is both the first one to New Zealand and to focus on the co-location of retirement living and aged care.
Tailored to executives operating in the retirement living and aged care industry, the June study tour is being run in partnership with the Retirement Villages Association (RVA) New Zealand and includes the RVA New Zealand annual conference.
At the start of the tour, RVA executive director John Collyns will provide an overview of the New Zealand consumer protection regime before delegates visit a mix of retirement villages and co-located aged care facilities in Auckland, Tauranga and Rotorua.
The tour aims to provide delegates the opportunity to see innovative approaches to retirement living and aged care, network with industry peers and participate in roundtable forums.
The program has been designed in response to ongoing aged care reforms in Australia that aim to help people stay at home and age in place, said Judy Martin, International SAGE program manager.
“The current reforms in Australia, along with an increase of mergers and acquisitions that particularly focus on co-located sites, and emerging partnerships have stimulated interest in looking closely at the successful New Zealand market, which has well-developed integration and co-located models,” Ms Martin told Australian Ageing Agenda.
Ms Martin said New Zealand’s retirement village operators were internationally-recognised as world leaders in this rapidly-growing sector and were set to add an additional 20 per cent capacity over the next two-to-three years.
Elsewhere as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, SAGE is offering aged care leaders an opportunity to visit Europe in September on a tour taking in The Netherlands and France, a leaders retreat and the European Association Homes and Services for the Aged (EAHSA) conference.
In November, a group is heading to South Africa on a tour most suited to CEOs and facility managers and particularly those operating in remote rural and regional areas.
For more information, visit www.sagetours.com.au.
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