Celebrating 90 years: Darren Birbeck on Resthaven’s past, present and future

Founded as ‘Rest Haven’ in 1935, South Australian aged care provider Resthaven is reflecting on 90 years of history — a history that often saw it at the forefront of aged care innovation in Australia.

Born out of the Great Depression when there was a growing need for services to help older people, the first incarnation of Resthaven was established in Adelaide’s beachside suburb of Brighton. 

Reverend Charles E Schafer was the driving force behind this home as he called on the Methodist Church to provide official support for the elderly in 1932. While it would take three years, the first home for elderly ladies was enthusiastically established in the home of Reverend John Pearce and his wife Annie. 

Growing demand led to the purchase of a dedicated home in Payneham, situated in Adelaide’s inner northeast. From there, it was nothing but growth. Resthaven was incorporated in 1944, and within decades it offered aged care services across South Australia.

No matter the size, the organisation has always put the people it cares for first. 

“At its heart, Resthaven is all about its people and has always been from the very early origins of the Methodist Church. Since our formation in the 1930s, we have remained focused on our enduring purpose of enriching the lives of older people,” shared Darren Birbeck, Resthaven CEO.

“The Uniting Church is a welcoming organisation. We provide services to people across the whole continuum. We’re a very diverse organisation, we have people from all over the world, and we welcome them to our organisation. That diversity is one of our greatest attributes and strengths.”

Resthaven was among the first organisations to develop formal aged care and support at home services in Australia. It participated in a 1994 trial of Community Aged Care Packages.

Today, just under 280,000 Packages are available across Australia, with an additional 107,000 to be released over the next two years once Support at Home commences. The government aims to have almost 600,000 Packages available within ten years.

This is to contend with the rising wave of demand providers are facing, including Resthaven.

“The whole sector has been expecting the baby boomer generation to come through. The first baby boomers turn 80 next year and we will see the peak in the demand within the next decade. We have been preparing ourselves for that over time,” Mr Birbeck added.

With the baby boomer tide rolling in, aged care is undeniably evolving. Mr Birbeck says this gradual shift in generations is likely to introduce residents and clients to the system that are more confident in expressing exactly what they want from a care provider. 

Forging ahead during uncertain times

The aged care sector is steamrolling towards July 1 and the commencement of a new Aged Care Act. Mr Birbeck praised the human rights-based Act, labelling it fantastic and something that the sector has wanted for decades. 

Although he admitted that information is slowly being released to providers and the broader industry, he is confident significant changes — including increased care minutes, higher wages and improved access to home care services — will deliver enhanced quality care and services.

However, there is one area he would like to see more support for: care minutes. Mr Birbeck recognised the value of mandatory care minutes for older people, yet he said inadequate funding continues to hurt providers. 

“When they announced the new funding instrument for residential care, AN-ACC, we were concerned that the National Weighted Activity Units (NWAU) did not reflect the cost of providing mandatory care minutes,” he said. 

“Our position has not changed. In some ways we feel that we are being legislated to make a loss. We remain hopeful that IHACPA will come to the party and advise the government that there’s a shortfall that needs to be remedied. Until then, residential care remains unsustainable.”

Resthaven, like many organisations in the sector, is incurring a loss in residential aged care to ensure that it does meet direct care minutes requirements. 

Despite this, it remains in a strong financial position thanks to a diverse range of income streams that have reduced its reliance on government funding. This includes a growing presence in the retirement living sector, which is part of the ‘three legged stool’ that Mr Birbeck likes to call aged care (residential care, home care and retirement living). 

“Aged care is a continuum. On one hand, you have high level needs — and we’re seeing that now with residential care where people are coming in older and frailer with higher acuity — but we provide the whole service. Resthaven is a full service aged care provider and we’ll continue to do that,” he said.

“Five years ago we only had 100 retirement living units and now we have over 1,200. We’re nicely balanced for the future and we have a solid residential care portfolio, we’re very strong in home care and now equally strong in retirement living.”

Mr Birbeck added that he hopes to see new liquidity requirements that impact retirement living adjusted. 

“We don’t believe that retirement living should be included in the liquidity standard because it’s governed by state legislation and the cash flows for retirement living are different. As a resident leaves, cash is coming in, so there’s no shortfall. It was unnecessary to legislate the retirement levy,” he said.

Celebrating 90 years in style

With 12 residential aged care homes, 23 community service locations and 31 retirement living villages, it is easy to see why this 90th anniversary celebration means so much to Resthaven.

As Mr Birbeck put it, this is a celebration of 90 years of history, including staff, residents and clients. His passion bubbled to the surface when talking about Resthaven staff, and his ability to directly support them. 

“There’s nothing like working for an organisation where you can bring all the skills and knowledge that you’ve built up over a career. That gets me up in the morning,” he said.

“I love developing and growing others, seeing people flourish and become their best whilst achieving great things.”

Resthaven has three programs — the Resthaven Future Leaders Program, Emerging Leaders Program and Aspiring Leaders Program — aimed at staff development and growth. It also hosted its second Resthaven Excellence Awards this year, with over 1,800 nominations and nearly 300 people in attendance at the Awards event. 

“It was a night where we could celebrate people who care for other people. There were tears of pride and joy. It was incredibly moving,” Mr Birbeck said.

“The heartfelt responses of the award recipients really showcased the importance of recognition and acknowledgement. Our staff do not do it for the rewards or accolades, they do it because they love what they do.”

Looking to the future, Resthaven is focused on two major developments at Marion and Westbourne Park. Additional investments into home care and retirement living are also on the horizon so that it can adapt to meet the growing needs of older Australians. 

If Mr Birbeck’s enthusiasm for aged care is anything to go by, Resthaven is ready for anything in the next 90-plus years.