The Not For Profit provider is billing its new 102-bed Alice Ross-King Care Centre as a first for WA, with a resident-directed care model that allows residents to choose how they will spend their day.

“Residents, families and staff spend time together prior to moving in to determine what the resident chooses for their daily routines,” facility manager Helen Falkiner explains. This includes waking and bed times, whether they eat their meals in their room or in the dining room, bathing and grooming times and daily activities.

A staff member is also allocated to work with the same group of residents for over 80 per cent of their shifts to encourage closer relationships between staff and residents and provide continuity of care. In another first, Ms Falkiner says residents and their families will also have a say in how services are provided, including staff recruitment.

RAAFA WA was originally set up to support Australian Aviation ex-servicemen and women. It now has six retirement villages with 1,435 independent living and 446 aged care places in WA.