Foundation committed to elderly

By TOM CLARKE

The level of care for New Zealand's elderly is dropping quite quickly, says Duncan Macdonald, a specialist in developing and managing facilities for the elderly.

Rev Macdonald has been appointed the Selwyn Foundation's first chief operating officer, with responsibility for more than 500 staff and for rest homes, hospitals and community care services throughout Auckland and Whangarei.

He says the level of care in the community is dropping because New Zealand has a "far more mobile population than we used to have.

"It's also down to the fact that women, who were predominantly the providers of care for the elderly, now have to work to bring in income for the family, so that resource is shrinking very quickly."

But he says there are huge pools that need to be tapped and developed - young people who have yet to decide on their career paths, and people in their late 50s who have retired early or who have been made redundant.

They could provide paid or voluntary help.

Despite the emergence of commercial operators as providers of retirement care facilities, Rev Macdonald firmly believes there will always be a place for charitable care providers.

"Traditionally, the churches got involved in it in the 60s because no one else was doing it, and they put an enormous amount of effort into it," he says.

"The question of churches being involved in institutional care is one we have to work through.

"We have to be very sure that we're in this business because we're caring for people, ministering to the elderly, and giving them a quality of life and providing services that are appropriate to their needs."

The Selwyn Foundation is the aged-care arm of the Anglican Church, Auckland diocese.

It is irrelevant, Rev Macdonald says, whether people enter the foundation's facilities because of ill health or the need for security, or whether they can afford it: the foundation is committed to caring for people regardless of their personal circumstances.

Rev Macdonald says both commercial and charitable service providers will face changes as they come to grips with an increasing number of elderly baby boomers.

The Government needs to get its superannuation "act together" to deal with this group, he says.

"That's a major issue that has to be addressed pretty quickly in terms of how we're going to care for the elderly in the next 20 to 30 years."

Before joining the foundation, he was national manager, rehabilitation, for the Accident Compensation Corporation, responsible for managing operational procedures and service delivery in rehabilitation.

He has also worked as executive director of Waipu Anglican Care, managing retirement villages, rest homes and hospitals throughout the Bay of Plenty, East Coast, Hawkes Bay and Manawatu.

He was also, for a period, director of community services for Hutt City Council and has worked in Anglican parishes in Lower Hutt, Hawkes Bay and in Britain.