Ageing is not a problem to be solved, it is a stage of life

We like to say that that when we’re designing for the aged care industry, we’re designing for our future selves.

But instead of guessing what we might want in the future, we should be listening to what older people want in aged care facilities today. We can start from the fundamental question, “What does a successful day look like for you?”

We’ve got design problems in aged care. The built environment might be working against us, the systems and available technology might also be working against us at times. But that question sets the compass to the true north of residents’ experience. That's the place to approach challenges from. Exploring and designing solutions from this perspective enables a broader conversation that’s bigger than staff ratios, skill mix, and average hours of care per day (although these are likely to be important factors).

Co-designing with families and residents has never been more important. Recently I’ve been seeing think tanks, thought leaders and industry experts explore ageing in the absence of older people. The approach is tech-centred rather than human-centred, and calls for disruption are misapplied. Ageing is not a problem to be solved, it is a normal stage of human life, to be managed by the individual, their families, neighbours, communities and the health sector. When older people don’t fit a certain tech-driven conception of ‘successful’, they risk being labelled ‘non-compliant’. ‘Success’ must be defined by aged care residents themselves.

With the impending Royal Commission, the aged care sector will delve into what they have to do to produce systems that deliver improved quality of care. Let's aspire to focus on more than simple service delivery. The findings of the Royal Commission will probably be harrowing, as the findings of the Four Corners investigation were, but they will also be an opportunity to shift to totally new approaches that centre and enrich the lives of older Australians in aged care facilities.

— Matiu Bush

*Matiu is a Design Integration Lead at Bolton Clark who uses human-centred design to transform the aged care sector. *