Time Well Spent

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/

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.

The Aged Care Tsunami is Coming and We Are Completely Unprepared…

By 2040, Australia’s population over 85 will double, threatening to trigger a full-blown collapse of the aged care system. 

In this episode, we sit down with Simon Kuestenmacher, a leading demographer, columnist, and Co-Founder of The Demographics Group, who is widely recognised as one of the world's top data visualisation influencers. Together, we break down Australia's looming workforce collapse, the critical role of skilled migration, and how technology must bridge the gap before it is too late. 

Tune in to understand the hard, data-driven facts of where the nation is heading and why this conversation matters for every worker, family, and business owner today.

Key moments:

00:00 Why Australia's Aged Care System Faces Guaranteed Failure by 2040

05:00 How Dementia Data Exposes the Massive Scale of Our Healthcare Crisis

08:25 Why Tasmania Holds the Key to Solving Australia's Ageing Population Problem

10:11 How Red Tape and Bad Data Hold Back Healthcare Innovation

15:00 How Cover My Ass Bureaucracy Is Strangling Government

18:45 Why University Overeducation and Low Wages Are Driving Staff Out of Care

21:54 How Employer-Sponsored Visas Can Fix Australia's Skilled Labour Deficit

25:14 The Truth About Net Overseas Migration and Common Economic Myths

29:30 Why AI and Robotics Won't Magic Away Our Healthcare Workforce Deficit

35:12 Navigating Retirement: The Mental Benefits and the Post-Career Trap

41:20 Why Building Physical Nursing Homes Won't Solve the Demand Surge

48:47 How Modern In-Home Care Models Satisfy What Retirees Actually Want

53:22 How the Shrinking Middle Class Is Threatening Regional Care Access

59:33 The Exact Reforms Needed to Save Australia's Failing Care Sector

Connect with Simon on LinkedIn or Instagram.

Check out The Demographics Group here https://www.tdgp.com.au/

—

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/

What if the secret to fixing aged care is stepping completely outside the traditional system?  

In this episode, we sit down with Grescha Brewer and Shelly Fletcher from Honeybee Homes, a bold micro-housing initiative in NSW proving that small-scale sharehouses beat rigid institutions every time. Both seasoned registered nurses who spent decades on the frontlines of traditional aged care, Grescha and Shelly got sick of system constraints and have built something better: normal homes where elders actually want to live. 

We tackle the hard conversations about what needs to change in Aged Care policy and practice and how micro-sharehouses could be the answer. 

Key moments:

00:00: What is a micro-sharehouse in Aged Care

12:57: Why wrapping elders in cotton wool destroys quality of life

15:58: How the 4 Cs care model supports residents all the way to end of life

24:11: How locked doors exacerbate distress in dementia care

25:04: How micro-housing builds true neighborhood connection

30:08: Why care models must come before business models (COB vs. BOC)

53:31: What licensing the Honeybee model means for scaling sector change 

57:53: This is the metric that actually matters: 0% preventable hospital admissions

01:01:06: This is what happens when you remove pan rooms and bed pans

—

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/

Australia has pulled institutional living out of disability, mental health, and child protection. There are only two places left where we still build institutions: prisons and aged care.

In this episode we sit down with Inspector-General of Aged Care, Natalie Siegel-Brown. The new Aged Care Act put words like dignity, agency, and kindness into federal law, a first for this country. But as Natalie puts it, the system we've built can't deliver them, because we've taken a regime designed around compliance and doubled down on it. Low-hanging fruit, she says, is the enemy of reform.

From care minutes that mandate institutional care, to the $50 pair of crutches that became an $1,800, three-month ordeal, this is what the red tape is actually costing older Australians, providers, and the budget.

Key moments:

00:00: Who Holds the Federal Government Accountable When Aged Care Fails

2:36: Why Beautiful Words in the New Aged Care Act Won't Fix the System Alone

5:26: How "Low-Hanging Fruit" Policy Is Destroying Genuine Reform

6:36: Why Prisons and Aged Care Are Australia’s Last Two Institutions

13:26: How Rigid Care Minutes Penalise Real Human Connection

14:24: How an "Innovation Pathway" Could Unlock Better Models of Care

24:09: What Is Really Driving the 200,000-Person Waitlist at the Front Door of Aged Care

28:23: How Denmark Reduced Nursing Home Admissions by 11% Through Prevention

32:47: How Red Tape Turns $50 Crutches into an $1,800 Bureaucratic Nightmare

45:15: Why Forcing Sicker Pensioners to Pay More Co-Contributions Is Backfiring

54:57: How Public Pressure and Voting Can Drive Real Aged Care Change

56:28: Why First Nations Aged Care Oversight Must Remain Fully Independent

—

Catch up on our episode with Duncan McKimm on:Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3MYaduHh8TcS1lrSl5hN6s?si=Uqlpgu2vR9-WEZzTTEKoTAApple - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/11-000-nurses-short-the-aged-care-policy-that-cant-be-met/id1842857248?i=1000778593215Youtube - https://youtu.be/CfclAzZz75s?si=uOdXhvUjSwVIwdDy

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.

Today, Australia is 11,000 registered nurses short. Yet every provider is being held to 44 RN minutes per resident per day, and the government's own modelling says it can't be done.

We speak with Duncan McKimm, CEO of Clarence Village, whose facility went from compliant to non-compliant overnight without anything changing on the floor. We talk about why quality indicators haven't moved despite a 30% jump in costs, dignity of risk done properly, and the NDIS playbook for unlocking aged care's political power.

As Duncan puts it, we should aim to be vaguely right instead of precisely wrong. Listen now.

Key moments:

00:00: Why Australia Doesn’t Have Enough Nurses to Meet Its Own Care-Minute Rules

2:14: How Care-Minute Rules Could Leave Older Australians Without a Bed

12:40: What Aged Care Should Measure Instead of Staff Minutes

19:20: Why Aged Care Is Becoming ‘Precisely Wrong’

33:56: How Compliance Creates Perfect Documents and Not Perfect Care

42:31: Why Regional Aged Care Is Losing Beds When Demand Is Rising

45:40: Why Support at Home Won’t Solve the Regional Aged Care Crisis

52:25: How Dignity of Risk Lets Older People Keep Living Their Lives

57:01: What Person-Centred Aged Care Actually Looks Like

1:04:22: Why Real Choice Means Letting Older People Take Risks

1:07:56: What Providers Need the Aged Care Minister to Understand

1:11:19: How Communities Can Force Political Change in Aged Care

—

Find out more about Duncan's Get Better With Age Australia campaign at getbetterwithageaustralia.com.au.

Connect with Dane and Rose or the Podcast 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.

A 74-year-old was reported for a "new behaviour." It was 60 years new…

Live from the Ageing Australia Conference, we’re joined with Melissa Argent from Rockpool and Vicki Cain, dementia specialist with 41 years in the sector, about sex and intimacy as a right under Standard 1, not a risk to manage.

We get into where the new Aged Care Act leaves providers exposed, and the tension between naming intimacy as a right while still carrying a mandatory duty to report. Real cases come up throughout. Residents who found love again with advanced dementia, a resident who arranged intimate support near end of life, and the built environment problems most facilities were never designed to solve.

Live Q&A included.

Key moments:

4:10: How one provider handled two residents who believed they were married

06:28: Who the SIRS report should actually be about

9:18: Why a dying resident planned to book a motel 

12:14: The advanced directive most providers haven’t thought through 

12:44: The real answer to content in the “gray zone”

17:55: What provides miss when they report “new behaviour” in older residents

21:50: What your building is telling residents about permission

23:31: What a family actually needed when a resident found new love

25:26: What a POA can’t actually override

—

Connect with Dane and Rose or the Podcast 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. 

Most providers know what to do when someone wants to come into aged care. Almost nobody has a process for what happens when someone wants to leave.

Derek Tuffield, interim CEO of Clifton Aged Care, found that out when a resident, Greg, stopped him in the corridor and asked: "How long do I have to be here?"

In today's episode we talk with Derek and resident Greg about what it actually takes to walk a resident back out the door. We get into guardianship, the "stepping stone" thinking, and the gap that leaves people like Greg stuck because no one's built a pathway out.

Key moments:

00:00: Why small providers are running out of road

14:54: What the real difference is between Board member to CEO

19:00: One resident's question… “How long do i have to be here”

22:06: How do you build a way out that doesn’t exist yet

34:55: What most managers would have done when someone asks to leave

36:47: What family involvement actually looks like in Guardianship cases

—

Connect with Dane and Rose or the Podcast 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.