DR Care Solutions

It was eight years ago that I hung out my shingle and started assisting Australian families set up the right care and support for their loved ones.

DR Care Solutions - Celebrating Eight Years of Service
© Danielle Robertson Consulting Pty Ltd t/as DR Care Solutions

What an incredibly rewarding experience these years have been!

For more than 36 years, I have been facilitating care for Australian families, initially as Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Executive Officer of our family business, Dial-An-Angel, and now through DR Care Solutions^[1].

Since launching DR Care Solutions in May 2015, I have had the pleasure of assisting 500 Australian families (nearly 600 individuals), and through a family connection, six families in British Columbia, Canada in 2022.

That assistance has included:

Enabling hundreds of elderly Australians remain at home through organising in-home care.
The smooth transition of more than 150 clients into residential care, 20 of those being couples.
Helping 30 NDIS clients remain at home with good care and support in place or into a group home environment.
Providing advice and services to more than 20 expats who, through the tyranny of distance, are unable to be by their elderly loved one’s side at times of need.
We’ve relocated 10 clients to different states, closer to their families either to reside in residential aged care, in ‘granny flats’ or within the family home. Logistically, this can be challenging.

In a pro bono capacity, I have always invited anyone who is concerned about the care of their loved one to call me for advice. It has been a great privilege to take these phone calls and help hundreds of Australian families. Each year, I assist four families on a pro-bono capacity to find the right care and support for their loved one.

Tributes

There's no question that I enjoy what I do and that the rewards for me are plentiful. I'd like to thank everyone who has been on this journey with me, everyone who supported us over the last eight years, and my team, my clients, and their families. In the videos below are a few words of thanks together with some of our video testimonial snippets from clients and their families.

The unexpected rewards

Care sector respect for our business and service provision has brought other unexpected experiences such as:

Being featured in the full-length documentary film, Everybody’s Oma^{[2 & 3]}, and walking the red carpet at the Sydney Film Festival. This wonderful film on the van Genderen family’s dementia journey made the official selection list of three film festivals!
Media interviews giving me the opportunity to present the collective position of my clients. I have been able to share their views in more than 64 news outlets, including ABC 7.30 Report, ABC Radio, Channel 7, The Financial Review and The Age^[4].
Conference speaking and attendance at think tanks on 27 occasions, giving me the opportunity to collaborate and find solutions with other care sector leaders^[4].

Increase in demand

Demand for our services continues to grow on average 25% every year. Without doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic years go down as the most hectic business years on record.

2020 saw a sharp reversal in requests to place elderly loved ones in residential care and a doubling in demand for in-home care. It saw us move a number of clients out of residential care and around 70% of our business was focussed on providing in-home care^[5].

In 2022, and now into 2023, the trend has gone the other way with an increase in demand for residential care^[6].

I put this down to three key factors:

Real shortages of skilled aged care workers, in particular in-home care workers in all states and territories (rural and remote areas included).
Increases in the cost of living and care costs, including the minimum in-home carer visit of two hours and the 4.6% (1 July 2022) and the coming 15% (1 July 2023) rise in carer wages.
The “sandwiched” time-poor Generation X concerned that their elderly loved one is lonely and isolated living at home.

At the same time, the reforms of the Royal Commission in Aged Care Quality and Safety are bringing about changes that are challenging private sector care providers.

Reform is good and necessary but it comes at a time when the residential aged care sector has been knocked around by the pandemic years, particularly in terms of loss of income from vacant rooms, and where both the residential and in-home care providers are experiencing a chronic shortage of workers. Smaller operators cannot afford the current reforms and some are closing.^[7]

Remember, in this ever changing environment, I am always here to help you and your loved one set up the right care, support and assistance at the right time and in the right place.