Care needs and acuity are rising in retirement villages. eevi Founder and Managing Director David Waldie says technology has a role in helping operators respond – and residents remain in their village homes.
“The new reality of being in retirement villages is that care needs have changed and acuity in retirement village communities is now on the rise – and what do you do about it?”
For eevi Founder and Managing Director David Waldie, that is the question retirement living operators now face.
Operators have come to this slowly for good reason, he said: they have successful models that historically have not included care.
“We have a demand-led situation, for help to stay in place,” David told SATURDAY.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) estimates almost 459,000 Australians are living with dementia in 2026, rising to more than one million within 35 years.
David points to one resident who leaves his retirement village almost every day and walks for around three hours before returning home.
He has dementia, but the walk itself is not necessarily the problem.
“We need to make it safe to wander as best we can,” David said.
For David, the starting point is not monitoring everything a resident does. It is deciding what information would help them remain independent.
“Operators must spend some time trying to define what problem you’re actually trying to solve here,” he said.
Look for what changes
David said operators are increasingly using resident data in care planning and conversations with families and GPs.
Sleep, movement, toileting and activity within the home can build what he calls a resident’s “digital phenotype” – their normal pattern of behaviour.
“You’ve got a signature and understanding what that signature is and how it changes over time is key,” he said.
If someone normally gets up twice during the night and quickly returns to bed, there is little value in alerting staff each time. A sudden change is more useful.
David said the data can validate what staff are already seeing rather than replace their judgement.
“The most important data is actually the care observation,” he said.
The AIHW found fewer than half of people surveyed received a dementia diagnosis within a year of first noticing symptoms, while 27% waited more than a year before seeking professional advice.
Marie Alford, General Manager Growth & Innovation, Advisory Care & Partnerships at HammondCare, said operators that know their residents well may notice cognitive change before a formal diagnosis.
“They’re more visible, they’re more engaged, and therefore they’re looking for those solutions a lot faster,” she said.
Marie said timing was critical.
“What we see is that people put technology in too late,” she said. “We need to introduce it early, before cognition changes, so it is already part of everyday life.”
What does it mean for staff?
Eevi learnt during an early implementation that technology can create more work for staff, when motion and bed sensors produced so many alerts that staff began switching them off.
The solution was to suppress normal behaviour and alert staff to events requiring a response. Getting out of bed to use the bathroom is very different from getting out of bed and falling.
“You can use the intelligence of the platform to be more efficient with your staff. That’s a big deal,” David said.
“You can deliver better care at the same number of people.”
“We can no longer afford to run aged care without the benefits of the technology,” he said.
Helping people stay
Technology can also scale as residents’ needs change – from a personal emergency response system through to sensors and care delivered into the home.
David pointed to operators now installing the cabling and infrastructure required for future technology without activating it in every home from day one.
“It is not built with the technology, but for it,” he said.
This allows technology to be introduced as a resident’s needs change, rather than turning their home into a monitored environment from the moment they move in.
“It’s got to feel like a home, not a hospital.”
Technology cannot provide the care itself, but David said the tools to help residents remain in their village homes already exist.
“The technology will not be the blocker,” he said.
The question is how quickly retirement living responds to the demand for care already inside its communities.
Words by Lauren Broomham
Published with permission from The DCM Group.
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