Benetas Awarded for Bringing Research to Life in National Innovation Awards

Leading not-for-profit aged care provider, Benetas, won the Wellness and Reenablement Category for putting research into action in the national InnovAGEING 2020 awards.

Designed by the sector’s innovation network, InnovAGEING, and its Foundation Partners, the Commonwealth Banks and KPMG, the national awards program is designed to advocate for the transformation of aged care and seniors’ living with innovative solutions that put older Australians first.

Awarded for its holistic solution to health and wellbeing, Benetas’ holistic online Positive Ageing Tool (PAT), is a perfect example of this vision.

PAT builds off the outcomes of a federally funded research project that was conducted by Benetas’ research team and Monash University to create a frailty scoring tool for older Australians to better identify early signs of frailty.

“Building off this research project, what we needed to do in the Customer Insights and Marketing Team was make the research outcomes accessible to older Australians in the most user-friendly and engaging way possible,” said Benetas’ Marketing and Brand Manager, Richard Barker.

The subsequent online Positive Ageing Tool provides an evidence-based health check for people over the age of 60 to better monitor their ageing journey, and be equipped with expert resources to stay healthy and active longer.

“Since we got the online Positive Ageing Tool up and running in January, it’s been used by thousands of people across Australia to identify their frailty levels and access expert resources tailored to their frailty score,” Barker said.

Benetas CEO Sandra Hills OAM said that innovative aged care solutions that empower older Australians to be at the driving seat of their ageing experience is exactly the direction that the sector needs to be headed.

“A key issue we face in our organisation and industry is the increasing resistance of older Australians and their families to reach out to aged care for preventive support before acute health declines occur,” she said.

“Our job as providers is transform how we deliver our services and programs to break down this barrier and ensure older Australians are receiving the guidance and resources they need to feel confident and in control of their ageing journey.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our experienced Research Team for working with Monash University to develop leading research to inform more consumer-centric aged care services, and of our Customer Insights and Marketing Team for then bringing these findings to life.

“Our team personified the tool, made the health-check user friendly, and developed an extensive online marketing and PR campaign to deliver it directly to those who need it most. And let me tell you, they often aren’t those with aged care yet on their mind.”

Since PAT was launched early this year, the tool has reached a non-traditional aged care market and had over 12,000 people draw on the resource and 7,000 people take the evidence-based health check. Plans to increase targeted digital marketing effort will only increase usage over the coming months.

Find out more about Benetas.