Leading legal expert in aged care and retirement living, Julie McStay from Hynes Legal, says savy aged care providers are  actively investigating partnerships with similar sectors to explore potential investments that will ensure sustained growth into the future.

“You could mount a strong case that the expertise required to build and operate successful aged care and retirement living facilities is also applicable to the rapidly expanding disability services sector.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is projected to have 460,000 clients when it is fully operational in three years. If that is an indicator of the pent-up demand for services in that sector, there is a very clear opportunity for aged care providers to potentially get involved.

Experience in any rapidly expanding sector shows that securing that growth into the long term requires revolutionary thinking in the short term.

The skillsets for aged care and disability care are entirely complementary. It makes sense that the two sectors can benefit by exploring ways in which they can work together to share professional expertise and potentially invest in specialised care facilities.

In this era of user-pays, waiting for government to provide solutions to society’s problems is no longer an option. Increasingly it is a case of private providers leading the way and government legislating as fast as it can to keep up.

The launch in 2005 of the not-for-profit charity Youngcare in Brisbane is instructive; the group was formed to establish specialist residential care facilities for young disabled people so they did not have to live in the only places that had the resources to care for them: aged care facilities.

The overlap in skills is clear but the solutions need to be tailored appropriately.

With some notable exceptions there are few examples where the two sectors have  worked well together in the past; it makes sense for them to talk now so they can start working together for the future."

Julie McStay is a Director at Hynes Legal and leader of their national aged care and retirement living team.