heartharmony.com.au

In recent weeks my family have been exploring nursing home options for my mother – and I have to say that universally the aged care sector are the worst adopters of the web. This is a multi-billion dollar industry and yet they still haven’t grasped that most baby-boomer children of aging parents use the net to research options before we pick up the phone to call a particular service.

So what have we found?

• A large percentage of nursing homes (both high and low care) don’t have any form of web presence. The most you will find is a phone number and address in one of a thousand junk web directories.
• If there is a website – it will be a standard brochure style site, with approximately 1-3 pages on it.  The larger more corporate sites are more designed for investors into the company rather than clients – so there are a lot of “what a great business we run let’s pat ourselves on the back” type of pages.
• The pages will show at least one photo of the front of the building, and a few istock photos of happy looking seniors.
• There will be no photos of rooms, common areas or facilities.
• Information is restricted to “we believe in aging with dignity and we work hard to make it happen”. If you are really lucky you may get a paragraph that says something about we have regular visits by podiatrists, pharmacists and hairdressers – but again no specific details.
• You may find a few very very vague paragraphs about fees, along the lines of “yes we charge daily fees and a bond may be payable”.

What were we looking for?

• Information about the centre – it’s philosophy & operating policies
• Details of accreditation
• Testimonials from current clients and families of clients
• Fee schedules with explanations and links to the Government rules on each component
• Details of what to bring to the home on admission
• Information on waiting lists
• Photos of the rooms, facilities and meals
• Information on support services and enrichment activities (a copy of the current weekly schedule would be great)
• Tips to help settle the person into the facility
• Enrolment forms
• Regular news updates on what is happening in the centre
• Google map link so we can find the centre. A link to Google Street would also be great so we can see what is around the centre (such as that bikers pub next door or the 6 lane freeway at the back fence).

You have to remember that it is not just the family that are stressed by this process. We also are coping with the concerns of “what is going to happen to me” of our frail elderly parents currently within hospital. The more information and photos we can share with them, the easier they will feel. They will start to get a sense of future and hope, rather than just losing control. They already are dealing with the a huge loss in the realisation that they can no longer cope on their own, without the added stress of not knowing the next steps and possibilities.

Aged Care Facilities could learn a lot from many of the daycare websites that include these features as standard. The same emotional issues are faced by the families seeking care – a mixture of guilt and hope from the family;  wanting to know the person will be safe, cared for and loved; being time poor and needing to find the facts quickly.

I understand that the industry is over-subscribed with many centres holding long waiting lists. This means that they don’t have any imperative to change their approach. However, the smart centres and businesses that do take action to improve their web presence will gain a dominant market advantage for when the many new centres that are currently being planned and being built hit the market.

Until that time – if you are like us, all you can do is to drive to each centre with your list of questions and watch the staff try and sell the facility while you try and glean the information you need for both you and your elderly parent.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

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Heart Harmony – Freelance Writer