More and more Australians and New Zealanders are calling a retirement village home.
As one would expect, the accommodation, facilities and services available can significantly impact the amenity and quality of village life.
Ensure your village is providing independence, choice and a lifestyle seniors deserve and expect through the four P’s framework for village maintenance: Presentation, Protection, Preparation and Partnership.
Presentation
The external presentation serves as the resident’s first impression of your village and aged care facility – so make it count.
Cracked, faded and peeling paintwork won’t provide a sense of safety and care that immaculately maintained surfaces and buildings offer. Attract residents with purposeful gardens and inviting outdoor spaces which are well-known for their therapeutic effects on mental health and physical wellbeing. Carefully designed signage contributes to a welcoming and comfortable environment as well as offering visual cues for familiarity and security.
Integrate key maintenance avenues including grounds maintenance, cyclic washing, preventative painting programmes, wayfinding and signage services to your village maintenance for an outstanding presentation and experience for residents.
Protection
For optimal functionality, safeguard the built and physical assets at your village and aged care facility. By developing maintenance around individual asset types and using lifecycle planning together with current and predicted asset condition, you’ll be able to make better-informed decisions and targeted implementations. This not only helps to pre-empt breakdowns, but you’ll also avoid the need for constant repairs and expensive replacement costs.
Risk mitigation – from securing the safety of residents, visitors and staff, to making certain regulatory government and building compliance – is integral to protection.
To identify strategies for risk mitigation, it is important to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment. For example, an audit of traffic flow in and out of the village can help determine the adequacy of directional and wayfinding signage for traffic and pedestrians. Using the audit findings, you can then implement appropriate measures such as installing speed limit signage and speed humps to ensure safer pedestrian walkways.
In this regard, advice from professional facility and property management experts can prove extremely valuable, particularly when such knowledge is not immediately found amongst village personnel. Their insights and experience can help villages leapfrog current understanding, capabilities and compliance in a short time.
Preparation
Residents are looking for a village or aged care facility that fits their personal lifestyle. However, acceleration of technology and digitisation has rapidly changed the way of living. New technology and systems offer greater quality of services, improved security and operational efficiency. They also provide for better health and medical care.
More than that, such facilities will soon be populated by residents who have become accustomed to technology both on the home and workfront. With technology intrinsic to their everyday life, it is reasonable to assume that they will expect villages and aged care facilities to incorporate technology as part and parcel of the amenities on offer, rather than a star feature.
To meet the growing expectations and physical, social and environmental needs of residents, villages have to act today to prepare for tomorrow.
Technology systems and its integration need to be assessed, upgraded or improved in anticipation of change. So too the notion of ‘space’. Re-evaluate the relevancy of the physical form and functionality of your facilities in meeting resident needs like how Baptcare Werribee transformed an unused space into a therapy garden for dementia patients.
To respond quickly and effectively to digital disruption, retirement and aged care operators need to integrate demands on technology, connectivity, infrastructure and space utilisation in time to come with current capital works.
Partnership
Like fine wine, successful maintenance can only be enjoyed and seen after an extended period of time. Having the right supplier partnership will free up important time, resources and enable you to focus on what matters – creating a home that residents can age in place.
Developing partnerships with long-term horizons will allow you to address your current requirements and future needs. Having worked closely with the retirement living community for the past 20 years and as an accredited service provider, Programmed is a partner that understands the world of retirement and aged care operators.
Talk to us today for a bespoke maintenance and presentation package that suits the unique environment of your village or aged care facility.
