NEED TO RIGHT-SIZE CARE
Another area that warrants closer attention is the need to right-size care.
Across welfare homes, the intent is clear: to deliver dignified, resident-centric care while empowering seniors to make their own choices. Even with this balance, we can reflect on how care is best delivered.
In residential settings, systems are often designed to prioritise safety, and rightly so. Yet over time, when daily decisions are routinely made on behalf of seniors, such as what to eat, where to go or how to spend their day, confidence and independence can gradually diminish. This reflects not a loss of ability, but the gradual formation of habits of reliance.
I have met residents who hesitate when asked to make simple choices – not because they are unable to decide, but they have simply grown accustomed to well-intentioned decisions routinely made on their behalf. In such environments, safety may be preserved, but personal agencies can quietly recede.
Right-sizing care means continually calibrating support to what seniors can do safely and meaningfully, rather than doing everything for them. Dignity is not preserved by removing all risk; it is preserved by allowing room for choice, responsibility and growth.
For policymakers and healthcare professionals, this means co-creating care with seniors – involving them in everyday decisions, asking what matters to them, what they still want to do themselves and where support is genuinely needed, rather than assuming dependence based on age or circumstance.
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