Aged Care South Australia: New Campaign to Change Aged Care Image

South Australian not-for-profit aged care provider Helping Hand has released a television commercial across South Australia to combat the negative public perception of aged care services.

The campaign aims to give a “less-typical view” of aged care and show the variety of aged care services available today. “Service choices have changed dramatically in the past few years, but the community is often not aware of the range of possibilities – unfortunately we don’t need to look beyond the sector to understand why,” said Helping Hand CEO, Ian Hardy.

Mr Hardy said clients often did not associate the word ‘aged care’ with themselves since many of them did not identify as being ‘aged’ or ‘old’.

“They think aged care equals nursing homes, and while it remains our core business it does not reflect the diversity of services we provide” he said.

Mr Hardy said aged care services now included physical therapy, domestic and personal services, mental health support, counselling and opportunities for social involvement as well as “traditional” nursing homes.

“It reminds people that you don’t need to be ready for a nursing home to think about aged care services,” Mr Hardy said.