Home Instead Senior Care has commenced a new public education campaign to help family carers. “Our research and day to day experience shows there are many people worried about their ageing parents and are trying to care for  someone who says they’d rather not have any help at all” says local franchise owner Sarah Warner.

“This resistance can be a real problem for family carers – they can be worried about the safety of a senior loved one forgetting food on the stove or neglecting to take their medications. We are spreading the message that keeping fiercely independent seniors safe at home isn’t a lost cause; there are solutions for them and their family carers.”

The campaign includes a free a resource booklet When Seniors Say No! – overcoming resistance to assistance and features practical tips and insights.

The Home Instead Senior Care survey revealed that 42% of carers spend more than 30 hours a week caregiving. And that’s what makes countering that resistance to assistance so important. “Many times family carers make assumptions but never ask: ‘Mum, I’ve noticed that every time I bring up having someone come in to assist, you don’t want help”.

Why is that?

Sometimes the parent doesn’t realize they’re being resistant. Also, reassuring a senior loved one that you have the same goal in mind will help. Start with something like: ‘My goal for you is to be independent, too. You know I can’t be here all the time. A little extra assistance will help you stay at home.’”

You can download the resource booklet When Seniors Say “No!” from the Home Instead website.

Regular readers of this blog, or perhaps those who have bought my book, would know that you typically occupy a unit in a retirement village in Australia through a ‘right to occupy’ contract, usually in the form of a loan/lease or loan/licence agreement. Sure, there are other types of occupancy agreements, such as Leasehold and Freehold, but the majority of occupancy contracts are loan/lease or loan/licence agreements.

So which contract is better – loan/lease or loan/licence?

Well to be completely honest, there isn’t a heck of a lot of difference between them.

Under both contracts, you make a ‘loan’ to the retirement village operator which is repaid back to you when you leave, minus, of course, all of the fees and charges that are applied when you exit. The loan is essentially the purchase price and is otherwise identified in your contract as the ‘ingoing contribution’. The loan or ingoing contribution amount is similar to what you would pay if you were buying a standard freehold-titled residential property of similar size and standard. It is structured as a loan basically so the village operator can pay less tax!

The lease or licence is the agreement under which you occupy your unit. You should enjoy the same quality of tenure under both types of contracts but remember, the purchase contract forms the basis of your occupancy in the village and you need to read and understand this document to know what you can and cannot do in your unit. You only have one chance to get this document right and that is BEFORE you sign it and move into the village. It is no use querying the fees and charges ten years later when you go to leave.

Common occupancy issues that you will want to check in your contract include:

• Can you have visitors stay with you and for how long?
• Can you have pets?
• Can you make changes to the inside or outside of your unit?
• Do you have a garden and can you plant whatever you want?
• Who repairs things like dishwashers and air conditioners?
• Who insurers what?
• What happens if you want to travel for an extended period?

I think it is also important to understand what happens when you leave – do you have to use the village sales agent or can you sell the unit yourself? Is there a commission or charges on sale?

It is likely that you will spend several hundreds of thousands of dollars on this purchase so it is definitely worth getting good, independent advice before you sign anything.