Ocean Street Project, Sydney

Project Selection

The project may contain a number of the following features but it has been identified by the Steering Committee specifically because it:

The following project description combines fact sheets prepared by The Benevolent Society and edited versions of the reports “Apartments for Life in Australia: Lessons for Australia from Humanitas in the Netherlands June 2009” and  “Apartments for Life: Housing, Care & Support Concept for Older People - ACIL Tasman 2009”.  Full copies of all these documents and more information are available at  www.bensoc.org.au.

Project Overview

Ocean Street aims to be a place where older people can live in their own homes throughout the changes and challenges of later life, with a sense of autonomy and purpose and fully connected to their local community.

Why it is an innovative project

The benefits from the proposed approach include reduced demand for high cost aged care facilities, better support for the preferences of the ageing population and the expanded availability of affordable housing geared around the needs of an ageing population.

The Built Environment

The Benevolent Society has planned a complex of multi storey apartments and community facilities at Ocean Street. About 2/3 of the apartments will be one bedroom plus a study, large enough for a family member, friend or care worker to stay overnight. The remaining apartments will be 2 bedroom.

The design incorporates specific features to address the lifecycle needs of residents, including:

Self-contained apartments, with balconies or courtyards.

Meeting areas and balconies on each floor for catching up with neighbours and friends, or just ‘watching the world go by’.

No steps and stairs and wider than normal doors and hallways, for people who use walking frames or wheelchairs.

Bathrooms designed to be safe for people who are unsteady on their feet or who have disabilities.

Kitchens designed to take into account common health problems such as arthritis.

Built in safety features, including lifts which can be used in the event of a fire.

Technological advances to make life easier for residents and to enable them to get help quickly, such as personal alarm systems.

Provision for installation of non-intrusive ways of monitoring residents’ health and wellbeing, for example, sensors if a person has fallen and is not able to get up.

A purpose-built dementia day centre, to allow for retention and support for residents who develop dementia, including both care for sufferers and relief for carers.

 

Service Model

It is envisaged that when the project is mature, around a third of residents will live wholly independently, a third will need low level care and a third will receive high level care. Some residents will live wholly independently; others will need care services and support from time to time or on an ongoing basis.

A key feature of the Ocean Street proposal lies in the approach planned for providing care to residents as and when needed; ranging from minimal care through to care that would normally only be possible in a hostel or nursing home. The Benevolent Society is proposing that there be a site-based care advisor as a central point of contact for all residents, able to advise on and arrange care from local care agencies but also from volunteers, with services that include:

• negotiation with health and care services on residents’ behalf
• discussing with residents’ families about how they might help more, if appropriate
• arranging for volunteers to visit isolated residents
• helping organise transport
• a community worker to be available to develop community activities on and around the site and link residents to the local community activities

The Ocean Street project will be as ‘dementia friendly’ as possible, using good design and technology, as well as the creative use of services including the on site dementia day care centre. However, the site is not big enough to support an aged care facility as well as a viable number of apartments. The care advisor will be available to assist families to find and move their relative to a suitable aged care facility if all options for safely supporting the person have been exhausted. At least one staff person would be available on site 24 hours a day.

This type of service structure will create significant opportunities for more efficient coordination of use of care workers, with an opportunity to substantially reduce the time taken in travelling between clients, and hence an opportunity to obtain greater utilisation of skilled care workers.

Who the project serves

The Ocean Street development targets a mixed socio economic grouping of older people.  It will offer loan licence agreements to higher end “purchasers” while retaining 40% of the units as affordable housing for older people on lower incomes.  They have identified that they are likely to attract residents from two main sources:

• People already considering moving to a retirement complex
• People who are assuming they will remain in their existing housing as long as possible but who might be attracted to rethink this strategy given the location, quality and the prospects for lowering the risk that they will be forced to move to a higher care facility.

Funding Sources

Most units will be made available under a ‘loan and licence’ arrangement, at prices broadly reflective of the prices of quality apartments in what is a sought after part of Sydney. Capital gains will be shared between the resident and The Benevolent Society.

Of the approximately 40 per cent of the apartments that are to be made available on a subsidised basis:
• 30 per cent of the apartments would be offered at a discounted entry prices;
• A further 10 per cent would be made available as rental housing for disadvantaged older people with no assets, with rents proposed to be set at public housing rental rates.

The services provided will, to a significant extent, operate on a commercial or government funded basis and should be largely self-funding. The upfront capital investment on facilities such as professional suites, is to encourage location of services in ways that will benefit residents and offer potential savings to service providers.

Project Auspice

The Benevolent Society was established in 1813 and currently employs about 800 staff and 900 volunteers. The Benevolent Society established, in Sydney, its first “Village for the Aged” in 1964 and has since evolved as a major provider of aged care facilities and services. In 1993 it established community programs to help older people remain at home.

Throughout their history there has been an emphasis on innovation in the provision of health and community services. While The Benevolent Society will continue as a major provider of community aged care services into the future, it sees potential for better addressing needs in this area through a proactive role in innovating and in encouraging sound change in the wider aged care sector.