Aged care leaders do not need to be told the sums are tight. The harder question is how to turn a shared frustration into a policy response, when media releases, submissions and LinkedIn posts have not moved the dial.
Royal Freemasons’ Benevolent Institution (RFBI) has a new and very unique offering: an informative video series in which CEO Frank Price sets out the case for some of the ongoing issues in the aged care space and actually leans on satire to get the message across, in the form of an AI generated parody of the Twilight Zone.
Prescribing inputs, capping the price
At the heart of RFBI’s argument is a distinction leaders will recognise: the difference between prescribing inputs and funding for outcomes.
RFBI Chief Marketing Officer Alana Parker says the government is prescribing inputs while capping what it will pay for them, including inputs not directly tied to the cost of delivering care. Put that on top of a sector already struggling with financial sustainability, she says, and it raises an obvious question about who will deliver the care. There is, she argues, a better way to achieve the outcomes the reforms were meant to deliver.
Price makes the same case in The Funding Crunch, arguing that in real terms, funding is “going backwards”, failing to keep pace with wages, inflation, more complex care needs and “the true cost of operating safe, high-quality services”.
The investment problem
For leaders weighing capital decisions, Price’s warning is direct. Providers are expected to invest millions in new homes and additional places “without a sustainable return”, he says. “When the numbers do not add up, those places are not built.”
The campaign puts the shortfall at around 10,000 beds needed each year against roughly 800 arriving. The flow-on effects are what Price wants a wider audience to grasp: older Australians ready to leave hospital with nowhere appropriate to go, crowded emergency departments, delayed elective surgery, and families and employers absorbing the cost.
“We cannot continue down a path that creates barriers to care, discourages investment, and places bureaucracy ahead of people,” he says.
When an assurance tool becomes a constraint
In The Care Minute Trap, Price turns to regulation. He describes care minutes as “a great idea” designed to ensure homes had enough staff, but says that over a remarkably short period they have changed character. “Instead of being an instrument to assure high quality care, care minutes are deconstructing it.”
His broader concern is that measures designed to assure quality can overlook the moments that uphold dignity, independence and wellbeing. The example he uses is a resident asking for a glass of water, time that does not count towards care minutes. “Somewhere between the promise and the policy,” he says, “the system lost sight of the people it was meant to protect.”
Why parody?
Parker says the creative choice was deliberate. The aim was to present a familiar message in a way that would cut through, rather than “just having people talk to it”.
She acknowledges that the parody works best for people already in the sector, for whom it reads almost as an inside joke. That is why each video is topped and tailed by Price, who provides the context for a broader audience and gives the message a figurehead: someone people can talk to, rally around or start a conversation with.
Both Parker and Price are careful about tone. Parker says the campaign is not intended to ridicule the government or start a blame game. It is framed around the fact that reform was needed and the intent was right, but the results are not what was intended. “The intent behind reform was right,” Price says, “but intentions alone did not improve outcomes for older Australians.”
One voice, and a second front
Each video closes with two calls to action, and the split is telling.
For the sector, it is an appeal to come together and stand firm. “The time has come for providers, peak bodies, clinicians, employees, and advocates to speak with one voice,” Price says.
For the public, it is an invitation to contact their local member of parliament. Parker says the goal is to add community pressure to sector pressure, so that decision-makers begin to feel the knock-on effects from more than one direction. She adds that it gives people a sense of agency, because many feel they cannot influence what happens in aged care.
End cards list contact details for Ageing Australia, COTA, Aged Care Minister Sam Rae and Health Minister Mark Butler. RFBI also intends to share the videos with more media.
Whether the approach shifts policy is an open question. But Price leaves little doubt about how RFBI sees the situation, and what he thinks leaders should do about it. “Waiting until there’s a crisis is no longer an option,” he says. “It is a crisis.”
