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Perth, Australia

Rubbing shoulders with world leaders in Aged Care, hearing research experts speak, talking to Service Providers whose ROI (return on investment – I had to ask someone what that means) can feed an African country for a few years and sharing stories with like minded passionate people is an indescribeable experience. In fact, this morning I am so exhausted that I can hardly open my eyes. Some of the techonological inventions are truly mind boggling. The equipment and computer systems, beds, trolleys, incontinence wear products are what we can only dream of. And yet, I walked away from the conference with an overwhelming awareness of how the developing world is missing the point. The very fact that so much research, technology, development of new models, conferences and debates are needed to focus on improving CARE, means that there is something fundamentally or inherently wrong. The concept is flawed within its very foundations. We can throw all the money in the world at this model, it will not work. Why? I challenged a number of delegates from the so called “developed” countries on their notion of “community”. There is a lot of talk about “retirement communities” at these conferences. In my opinion, the fundamental flaw lies in the idea of a “community” where people are grouped together because they have one thing in common, namely their chronological age. When age (or as is the case in a “Nursing Home” where disease) is the common factor, it simply does not bode well for growth, meaning, joy, identity, connectedness, autonomy or security (the Eden Alternative domains of wellbeing). In order to restore a vibrant sense of life, researchers and academics now start disseminating more and more data to engage more and more money in finding less and less answers. At the very start of the conference I was already pulling my hair out at the research forum, where with serious academic faces, researchers proclaimed the future of aged care: tecnology that moniotors every move, robots that can “feed” you, wash you, talk to you. Even a ROBOTIC SEAL (because people usually think seals are “cute”) that you stroke and it purrs! A top researcher came up with an eighteen page competency document that Caregivers should comply with…without any refernce to GENUINE HUMAN CARING. Creating a human habitat for a healthy community should be based on intergenerational living, where life revolves around close and contuinuous contact with animals, plants, children in order to create meaningful relationships. Simple. In my humble opinion we run the risk of training the humanity out of people. regulating every breath into tick boxes of competencies. Yes we need skills, but how do you teach someone to really CARE? It only comes through meaningful, authentic relationships. Honouring the life story, engaging the sacredness of the human spirit through “zorgzame zorg” or PRESENCE (presensie) that Prof. Andries Baardt of the Netherlands so beautifully describes. The conference was stimulating in so many ways. And in the closing plenary the panel did actually acknowledge that there is a huge gap in the proposed future models. And I walked away with an overwhelming feeling that we are doing something right in South Africa. We might not have the beautiful buildings, the technology or the legislation, but we have UBUNTU. We know instinctively about what it means to consciously engage, care, honour the spirit of our Elders. Listening to Femada of TAFTA and Sister Lucia of St. Antonine my heart was overflowing with joy in the recognition of kindred African spirits. I saw on the audience how they touched the hearts of the delegates with beautiful stories of creating a life worth living in areas where even running water is a luxury. Let us not stand back for one second and think that we are backward – we are indeed developing in the truest sense of the word. We have not arrived, we are on the most wonderful journey towards creating a world of connectedness for our Elders, celebrating the life of our Caregivers who do their work because of a spiritual calling in the most humbling of caring ways. It is my wish that more and more people from the African continent will be able to attend these conferences, like the 16 delegates who were given a scholarship by CommonAge to attend this year. I salute Andrew Larpent who saw the need, collected the money and made this possible. Delegates from Mauritius and India and Africa came to learn – I think they taught more in the humble honesty than they would ever realize.

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