Time Well Spent

We've spent nine months listening to the people actually running aged care in this country. Here's what we'd tell the minister if we had five minutes.

In today's episode we distil nine months of guest conversations into six direct policy asks for the Minister for Aged Care, Hon Sam Rae. From letting good operators prove better models of care, to scrapping star ratings and fixing care minutes for good, this is the open letter the sector has been waiting to send. 

As it stands, we need a new aged care home every three days for the next 20 years. Last year, we built around 800 beds. The maths doesn't work, and neither does pretending it will fix itself. If you're a provider, board member, or policymaker trying to make sense of where this sector is headed, these are the six changes we believe matter most.

Key moments:

00:00: What 9 months of conversations has taught us about the state of Aged Care In Australia

7:37: What a 90% death rate in residential care actually tells us 

11:13: Why good operations need a legal way to prove a better model 

14:22: Why care minted don’t measure what actually matters

17:06: What a 2025 study found when it tested care minutes against outcomes

26:34: Why CHSP needs to be saved, not scrapped

26:50: What it would actually cost to fund Aged Care properly 

36:38: Why the start ratings aren’t relevant 

37:40: Dear Minister, do the 6 things and fix the future of Aged Care in Australia

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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.

We're choosing to underfund aged care, and as a society, we're choosing to look away.

Melissa Argent and Adrian Morgan join us again to dig into why aged care still isn't the election issue it should be. Why we're not short on money but short on the political courage to talk about where it should go.

Nothing is off the table: profit, bureaucracy, policy, and the CHSP elephant nobody has a plan for, plus the uncomfortable truth that none of us think about this until it's our own family in the system.

Key moments:

00:00 Why is "Profit" treated like a dirty word in Aged Care

10:40 Why are two hospitals full of people with nowhere to go

20:34 How did a $70 million building end up sitting empty

39:40 What happens when the Government only funds 60% of your care

43:38 The conversation no one is having… Why we keep choosing to underfund Aged Care

55:17 Why the industry needs to start telling its own story

55:23 Why are care minutes useless

59:52 How do you eat an elephant? Inside the CHSP's looming deadline

01:16:09 We are not coping. The steps we need to take to fix things

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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.

The board didn't think the organisation would survive. Almost 5 years later, St Andrew's is approaching $50M turnover, operating above 98% occupancy across three facilities, and developing one of the more interesting dementia care models in Australia.

In today’s episode, Dane and Rose talk to Todd Yourell, CEO of St Andrews and discuss what that transformation actually looked like. From a surprise ACQSC visit that uncovered 82 unmet standards, to building a small house model for dementia care.

St Andrew’s is a case study in what community-owned aged care can look like when it's run well. And it's a direct counter-argument to the narrative that small regional providers can't survive.

Key moments:

00:00: What does good community-owned aged care actually look like

1:26: How a surprise ACQSC visit uncovered 82 unmet standards

3:44: What the board governance overhaul at St Andrew’s involved and why it’s changed everything

12:27: How St Andrew's decided to divest their home care business before Support at Home got complicated

15:09: What the difference between viable and sustainable actually means for small and mid-size providers

23:39: What the small house model actually means for dementia care and how staff went from sceptical to bought in

35:44: How St Andrew's turned a 40-bed Byron Bay facility into a homelessness response that stacks up financially

46:21: What change leadership looks like versus change management

52:27: What the future of aged care requires providers to be building toward right now

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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 

As two people who work in aged care, there is a lot we’re not happy with in this industry… And if we’re honest, there are things we’re scared could happen to us one day too.

In this episode, we wanted to get personal about what we think the aged care industry needs to do if people are going to have a meaningful life in residential aged care.

This conversation is shaped by our personal thoughts and fears, but also by what we’ve seen in the sector, the conversations we’ve had with residents, and the experiences we’ve witnessed firsthand.

It’s about the things we’re scared of, the moments that give us hope, and what it would take for aged care to feel like a place where people are still known, valued and able to live as themselves.

Key moments:

0:00 - What we’re most scared of when we think about ageing and entering residential care as it exists today 

6:18 - How do we design resident rooms in a way that feels personal without becoming infantilising? 

11:43 - The uncomfortable reality of incontinence, dignity and what personal care can give back to someone 

18:02 - Why the level of documentation in aged care could feel humiliating if residents truly saw what was being recorded 

20:00 - The aged care homes that gave us genuine hope this year 

27:53 - What Dane has started to see differently after a year of deeper conversations on the podcast 

29:43 - The controversial conversations aged care might have ignored five years ago, and why we need to keep having them 

32:37 -What the public still gets wrong about aged care in Australia 

36:18 -  The things providers celebrate that don’t matter to the person living in the home at all

38:50 - One practical change leaders and care teams could make tomorrow after listening to this episode 

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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 

Australia needs more aged care beds, more home care capacity, more workforce, more investment and more innovation.

But the data is starting to show a much harder question: who is actually in a position to deliver it?

Today, Dane and Rose are sitting down with Lauren Ffrost from KPMG to unpack the 2026 Aged Care Market Analysis and what it reveals about the pressure building across the sector.

They get into why no new residential aged care providers entered the market, what the home care waitlist is telling us, why self-managed care is growing so quickly, what investors are starting to see again, and whether technology and AI are becoming essential to provider sustainability.

Key moments:

0:00 - How KPMG’s Aged Care Market Analysis pulls together the public data providers are using to understand where the sector is actually heading

4:13 - The two numbers that stood out to Lauren in this year’s report

7:42 - Why the home care waitlist has jumped 41% in a year…

10:34 - What regional and remote aged care might need if one-size-fits-all funding keeps missing what’s actually happening in the sector

12:39 - What Trilogy’s rapid growth reveals about what older Australians are wanting out of Aged Care

15:43 - Why providers without these three things may find themselves falling further behind

19:31 - What has to shift if Australia needs tens of thousands of new aged care beds, but almost no one is building them?

27:45 - Why Lauren believes good care should naturally lead to compliance… and what it could look like if regulation moved closer to continuous improvement

32:37 - Why investors are starting to look at aged care again

36:51 - What Lauren would want the government to hear from providers about funding, infrastructure, technology and the cost of administrative burden

43:04 - How smaller providers can start looking for grant funding and support, especially in regional, rural and First Nations communities

43:48 - The one thing Lauren thinks every aged care executive should be asking about after reading the 2026 report

If you want to check out the Report for yourself, click here.

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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 

Most providers are already spending money on physio and reablement, but the bigger question is whether residents, families and leadership teams can actually see the value of what’s being delivered.

In this episode, Rose turns the mic on Dane and his Operations Manager and Physio, Michael, to talk about what reablement looks like inside residential aged care, what the Act now requires providers to put in place, and how physio has shifted since the move from ACFI to AN-ACC.

They also talk through what CEOs, boards and CFOs should be looking for in reporting, how to measure whether a program is actually improving outcomes, and why families are increasingly asking what support is available to help mum or dad maintain mobility, strength and independence.

Key moments:

0:00 - What does good reablement look like in aged care

3:09 - What physios are actually doing inside a 100-bed aged care home, and why it’s much more than running an exercise class

4:52 - How the shift from ACFI to AN-ACC changed physio from a funding exercise into a more clinically focused service 

12:04 - What the Act actually requires providers to put in place around reablement

15:22 - What the evidence says about reablement outcomes, including the falls, strength and mobility improvements providers should be paying attention to

18:01 - What CEOs and board members should be asking when they look at physio hours, clinical indicators and monthly reporting 

23:29 - Why providers may already be delivering valuable reablement work, while still missing the chance to show families and residents what’s happening

27:36 - Whether you really need a gym to run a reablement program, and what a provider could start with on a small equipment budget 

34:09 - Advice for CFOS who want to understand whether their physio spend is actually going towards therapy, maintenance or core clinical tasks 

35:36 - If reablement works, why hasn’t it become the core model of aged care in Australia? 

37:08 - Case study of a resident who moved from a walker to being able to walk independently

39:04 -  The one message Dane wants every residential aged care CEO to hear about the value they may already be providing

If you want to book a free Reablement Planning Workshop with Optimum Allied Health, visit www.opthealth.com.au/tws

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Visit www.thepurefoodco.com to hear more about how The Pure Food Co could help with your meal service.

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’re starting to scope out your next project, get in touch with Paynters over at www.paynters.com.au 

We don’t like to think of aged care as oppressive.

The people working in it care deeply. Most homes are doing their best with tight margins and limited time.

But what if some of the buildings themselves are still carrying a legacy we haven’t properly questioned?

In this episode, Rose goes back to where it all began - when dementia wasn’t treated as a condition, but as something shameful. Something to be hidden. Controlled. Locked away.

And then she asks a harder question: if our systems were built during that era… how much of that thinking is still baked into the way we design today?

Key moments:

0:00 - Where this history of oppression in aged care actually comes from

7:46 - What changed for Rose after spending a night in residential care

19:27 - The institutional design choices we’re still carrying into modern homes

21:46 - Where should we be drawing the line between safety and control

27:38 - What reablement spaces should look like in an aged care facility

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Find out how your organisation is performing with Stewart Brown by visiting www.stewartbrown.com.au/financial-surveys

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 

Gwenda Darling has been living with a dementia diagnosis for 14 years.

When she was first diagnosed, she believed her life was effectively over. For nearly four months, she stopped leaving the house.

Since then, Gwenda has become a fierce advocate for older people and aged care residents. She has served four terms on the Council of Elders and continues to push for the needs, rights and choices of older Australians to be taken seriously.

Because the reality is, too often, they still aren’t.

In this episode, Dane and Rose sit down with Gwenda to talk about what aged care looks like from the perspective of someone living inside the system. 

They cover the infantilisation of residents, what dignity really looks like in day to day care, how people living with dementia are treated by staff and other residents, the small choices that preserve agency, and the basic things that should never be up for debate - like full water jugs, daily showers, continence care, food people actually want to eat, and the right to intimacy.

Key moments:

00:00 - The diagnosis that made Gwenda stop leaving the house 

5:06 - The one thing Gwenda would change for older people first 

6:50 - What Gwenda says still hasn’t changed since the Royal Commission 

10:33 - The small “well-meaning” moments that are stripping residents of their agency 

11:52 - What self-managing a home care package actually looks like

14:40 - What Gwenda learnt after four years on the Council of Elders 

19:25 - Why Gwenda thinks we’re missing obvious answers to the aged care bed crisis 

30:07 - Why are we still treating residents like children? 

33:07 - The conversation aged care STILL struggles to have about intimacy

39:26 - What providers need to understand about sex, safety and ageing 

49:57 - Why continence care should never be treated like a schedule 

54:58 - What “dementiasm” looks like inside residential aged care 

1:02:08 - Gwenda’s message to Minister Sam Rae 

1:03:17 - What home care workers should be asking before they start the shift

1:04:54 - The residential care basics that we’re still missing

—

Visit www.thepurefoodco.com to hear more about how The Pure Food Co could help with your meal service.

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 

What if dementia care was designed around everyday life instead of rosters, risk avoidance and locked doors?

In Port Macquarie, a small aged care provider has built a full village for people living with dementia and after 18 months, the outcomes are forcing questions about how care is traditionally delivered.

Emmaus lets people living with dementia cook their own meals, choose when they eat, gives them the freedom to wander through a village with a café, bus stop, green spaces and a perimeter fence that doesn’t feel like an intrusion on daily life.

Today, Dane and Rose are speaking with Tracy Baker to find out what it’s been like to build and work within the small home model.

Key moments:

00:00 - Why St Agnes decided to make her residential village into a real neighborhood

5:58 - What kind of impact does the setup have on their residents?

11:40 - What did Emmaus Village decide to forgo the rosters and give the residents more flexibility

14:45 - Where does the companion carer come into the Emmaus model

17:39 - Why Emmaus only has one companion carer per small house model

19:34 - The design and construction details that were required to make this vision possible

25:03 -  How does the small household model impact staffing from a recruitment workforce, culture, and even staff retention perspective?

28:50 - Is this small home model only for mobile residents? 

33:03 - Why do they stand behind the small home model even when it’s tough

38:02 - Where do RNs sit in the Emmaus village?

39:10 - The benefits financially for a running a small model home

49:07 - How is the model going from a clinical perspective 18 months in?

56:58 - What Tracy wants the policymakers to change to help make improve the quality of life for Emmaus residents 

—

Visit www.thepurefoodco.com to hear more about how The Pure Food Co could help with your meal service.

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 

It’s not news that we need more beds.

More providers, more investment. more innovation.

At the same time, it’s getting harder and harder to enter into the market, harder to make a return, and harder to speak up about what sustainability actually requires.

So where do we go from here?

Today Dane and Rose are talking with Mel Argent, from Rockpool Residential Aged Care. They’re talking about everything from the stigma around making profit, what Rockpool is doing differently with their new homes, how the current system is making it impossible to get funding and questioning whether our compliance settings are fit for purpose.

Key moments:

0:00 -  Why Rockpool going back to startup mode gave them a rare opportunity to redesign everything under the new Act

5:30 - The non-negotiables Mel insisted on during the Regis negotiation

7:28 - Why can’t profit and good care co-exist in the Aged Care sector?

12:33 - The funding catch-22 no one talks about but will seriously impact our ability to create 80,000 beds

16:17 -  “I can’t believe this is aged care” – what a Rockpool home is designed to feel like

25:23 - The systems, technology and legislative shifts Mel is rethinking before opening the next homes

28:41 - Are care minutes reshaping the workforce in ways we didn’t intend?

33:50 - What is the 5-Star Rating System actually measuring?

39:00 - What would happen if we stopped competing with each other and started collaborating?

43:00 - Restrictive practice, reporting, and whether fear is driving behaviour

55:53 - What bold leadership looks like in aged care right now

—

Visit www.thepurefoodco.com to hear more about how The Pure Food Co could help with your meal service.

Find out how your organisation is performing with Stewart Brown by visiting www.stewartbrown.com.au/financial-surveys

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