Retirement living

Aged care’s greatest loss may not be funding or capacity — it may be the experienced leaders walking away. As reform fatigue deepens, Juniper Care CEO Russell Bricknell warns that exhaustion is driving talent from the sector and exposing the limits of an increasingly risk-averse system. From dignity of risk to lessons from Europe, he outlines why a fundamental shift in thinking may be needed to secure aged care’s future.

When 642 providers have become the new normal and consolidation still accelerating, the question boards should be asking isn’t whether consolidation can be stopped. It’s whether the leadership inside their organisation is built for what comes next.

The promise of aged care reform was better care, stronger safeguards and a more sustainable future. But nine months into the new regulatory landscape, many providers say the cost of compliance is draining resources, exhausting teams and making growth harder to achieve. In this candid interview, Juniper CEO Russell Bricknell reflects on the realities of reform, the challenge of building new capacity, and why long-term solutions remain trapped by short-term decision-making.

The top home care package funds 20 hours a week. Advanced dementia needs round-the-clock supervision. What happens in the remaining 148 hours? Rosie Fitzgerald can tell you.

Retirement villages aren’t a lifestyle product: they’re health infrastructure. Daniel Gannon makes the case that without planning reform and supply investment, the pipeline crisis feeding hospital strain and aged care pressure will only deepen.

When public funding shapes what you can say, honest critique becomes a calculated risk. Russell Bricknell, CEO of Juniper Care, names the structural forces driving provider silence – and the viability crisis quietly narrowing who aged care can afford to serve.

Tim Lawless says Australia’s ageing population is creating unprecedented demand for retirement living – but delivering enough homes may be the sector’s greatest challenge.

HammondCare’s Marie Alford shares what retirement village operators should be doing now to support residents living with dementia – from wayfinding to wellbeing coordinators to community partnerships.

Full villages, growing waitlists, and residents who can’t access aged care. The sector’s top operators are navigating simultaneous pressure on every front — and the leaders who’ll survive it are the ones willing to have honest conversations now.

Wayne Belcher OAM has done the numbers. The sector needs a new nursing home every two days for the next 20 years – and most providers are too busy surviving to address it.