Time Well Spent

Nine months into Support at Home, Paul Sadler gives it two out of ten. And he's struggling to work out where the two is. We sat down with Paul, back for his third time on the show, to talk about the CHSP Alliance he is driving and why the program is failing the people who need it most. We talk about why the same meal now costs 40% more under Support at Home than under CHSP, the 250,000 older Australians still waiting for care, the unanimous Senate report to keep CHSP separate, and why letting GPs prescribe basic services could ease the assessment backlog. Key moments: 00:00 - Support at Home nine months in: two out of ten 01:19 - Why moving personal care to clinical care mattered 08:51 - The 250,000 older Australians still waiting for care 12:18 - Will aged care become an election issue? 18:27 - Why the CHSP Alliance was relaunched in March 22:36 - Is the alliance just protecting its patch? 26:00 - The CHSP merger that has been delayed since 2015 31:43 - Why the same meal costs 40% more under Support at Home 37:16 - Should new providers be able to win CHSP grants? 42:21 - What the audit office found about CHSP 47:02 - The unanimous Senate report to keep CHSP separate 53:41 - Letting GPs prescribe CHSP services 59:47 - The message to Canberra this time --------- If you want to book a free Reablement Planning Workshop with Optimum Allied Health, visit www.opthealth.com.au/tws If you are building a new care facility today, or embedding care into an existing village, you should talk to Eevi.  Visit eevi.life or call 1300 802 738. And if you want to connect with Dane or the Podcast, you can find them on Linkedin and Instagram https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-mitchell-763ba524/ linkedin.com/company/time-well-spent-podcast https://www.instagram.com/danemitchell_optimum/

Around 70% of residents in Australian aged care are living with cognitive decline. Yet there are just 27 Specialist Dementia Care units nationally, about 550 beds, with over 700 people waiting. We speak with Vicki Cain, who leads Anglicare Southern Queensland's Specialist Dementia Care Program. After 41 years in the sector, she's still wedging doors open, unscrewing kitchen gates, and asking providers what exactly they're keeping residents safe from. We get into why 62% of "too difficult" residents transition back to mainstream care, what happens to psychotropic use when sedation is replaced with knowing someone's story, and the intimacy conversation the sector keeps avoiding. As Vicki puts it, if we take all the risk away, we take quality of life with it. Key moments: 00:00: What a Specialist Dementia Care Unit Actually Is (And What People Get Wrong) 02:16: Why Dementia Is Everyone's Core Business, Not a Specialty 08:34: 550 Beds, 700 on the Wait List. The Numbers Behind the Program 05:34: How Reducing Psychotropic Medication Starts With Knowing Someone's Story 06:28: Why Providers Won't Take Residents Back After Transition 14:39:  Why Care Plans Have Become a Tick-Box Exercise 11:08: The Cook Who Was Mistaken for a Nurse 32:45: Quality vs Risk. Who Are We Really Keeping Residents Safe From? 42:15: What Real Connection Looks Like Beyond Bingo  45:39: Sex and Intimacy in Aged Care 49:28: Consent, Capacity and Dementia… How to Get It Right 01:00:00: The One Training Shift Vicki Wants Every CEO to Make Connect with Vicki on LinkedIn,  it's her only social media, and the Friday Funnies are worth it. — If you want to book a free Reablement Planning Workshop with Optimum Allied Health, visit www.opthealth.com.au/tws If you are building a new care facility today, or embedding care into an existing village, you should talk to Eevi.  Visit eevi.life or call 1300 802 738.

What does Aged Care and Social Housing look like in 2026?  In this episode we sit down with Robyn Evans, COO at BaptistCare, one of the largest aged care providers in the country, whose community services and housing portfolio supports over 1,600 community housing tenants across 34 locations and around 13,000 clients with a disability. We get into whether aged care has become more about the money than the mission (Dane's nan thought so), why a late, who the invisible clients of a 100-year-old charity are, and what half a million dollars raised in one night actually buys. The Halo Ball is on this October. Tickets, tables of ten and donations here https://haloball.baptistcare.org.au/ Key moments: 00:00: Is Baptist Care a Charity or an Aged Care Business? 2:38: What a Cafe in Woolloomooloo Is Actually For 8:06: The Support That Stops When Government Funding Does 11:19: "More About the Money Than the Mission" 12:09: The Clients One of Australia's Largest Providers Forgot to Count 17:38: No Surplus, No Mission? 19:26: Where the Next Aged Care Workforce Is Hiding 24:20: Why Women Over 55 Keep Arriving at Hope Street 29:45: The Coffee Machine That Took Over a Tenant Meeting 33:27: The Loss That Started the Halo Ball 43:21: Where Half a Million Dollars Went in One Night Connect with Robyn on LinkedIn here - au.linkedin.com/in/robyn-evans-gaicd-1857982a See more about BaptistCare here https://baptistcare.org.au/ Book tickets, sponsor or donate to the Halo Ball here https://haloball.baptistcare.org.au/ If you want to book a free Reablement Planning Workshop with Optimum Allied Health, visit www.opthealth.com.au/tws If you are building a new care facility today, or embedding care into an existing village, you should talk to Eevi.  Visit eevi.life or call 1300 802 738.

When average home care returns swing from +$3.13 a day into negative territory, business as usual is no longer an option.   In this episode we sit down with returning guest Stu Hutcheon, Managing Partner at Stewart Brown, the firm behind the financial benchmarks used by both Government and industry to evaluate Australian aged care.   Following the Support at Home rollout, Stu unpacks the sobering data, uncovers the root causes of the financial squeeze, and shares the exact pricing, rostering, and strategic levers leadership teams must pull to remain viable Key moments: 00:00: The Real Reason Aged Care Providers Are Still Operating in the Red 3:44: How Support at Home Margins Flipped from +$3.13 to Negative Territory 7:09: Why Package Utilisation Collapsed to 62% (And What’s Driving Consumer Fear) 13:29: How Care Manager Caseloads Blew Out to 53 Clients per Partner 17:35: What IHACPA Benchmarks Miss 20:10: Why Home Care Can’t Fix a Broken Residential System 27:06: 62% of Residential Homes Are Losing Money 34:14: How RAD Funds & Smart Tech Can Unlock Hidden Operational Margins 47:10: Does Scale Actually Save You? The Truth About Mergers & Bed Volume 57:05: The Single Policy Change Needed for Long-Term Aged Care Sustainability — If you want to book a free Reablement Planning Workshop with Optimum Allied Health, visit www.opthealth.com.au/tws If you’re starting to scope out your next project, get in touch with Paynters over at www.paynters.com.au  If you are building a new care facility today, or embedding care into an existing village, you should talk to Eevi.  Visit eevi.life or call 1300 802 738.   If you have something you want to say, and are interested in being a guest on Time Well Spent, we want to hear from you - you can find the guest form here: https://timewellspentpod.com/ And if you want to connect with Dane and Rose or the Podcast, you can find them on Linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-mitchell-763ba524 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rose-plater-0a111a129 https://www.linkedin.com/company/time-well-spent-podcast

Think more regulation, higher staffing, and modern buildings guarantee better aged care? Think again.  In this episode, we tear down 7 massive myths choking the aged care sector. From mandatory care minutes to the hidden trap of "safety first" culture. We expose why an $800 million compliance machine isn't improving life for residents and how rigid rules actively punish innovation.  Listen in to discover what actually drives quality of life in care and why industry leaders must get bold to fix a broken system. Key moments: 00:00: Why $800M in Bureaucracy Isn't Improving Care 11:24: The Real Reason Care Minutes Aren't Working 12:22: How the "Bystander Effect" Can Harm Resident Care 16:29: What Luxury Foyers Are Hiding in Aged Care 23:52: Why "Safety First" Is Stripping Resident Autonomy 33:58: How Tech Funding Rules are Blocking Real Innovation 37:29: The Real Reason Aged Care Isn't Broken by Money Alone 47:28: Why Building More Beds Won't Solve the Crisis 50:03: How Aged Care Leaders Need to Be Bolder — And if you want to connect with Dane and Rose or the Podcast, you can find them on Linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-mitchell-763ba524 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rose-plater-0a111a129 https://www.linkedin.com/company/time-well-spent-podcast If you want to book a free Reablement Planning Workshop with Optimum Allied Health, visit www.opthealth.com.au/tws If you’re starting to scope out your next project, get in touch with Paynters over at www.paynters.com.au  If you are building a new care facility today, or embedding care into an existing village, you should talk to Eevi.  Visit eevi.life or call 1300 802 738.