Business View Magazine - January-February 2015

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Business View Australia - January-February 2016 115 & AGED CARE
The commitment of the initial found-
ers can be gauged from the fact that
some of the members used their hous-
es as security to develop the first aged
care site. The group’s residential facil-
ities are at The Italian Village in St Ag-
nes, Bene Campbelltown located right
in the core of the Campbelltown com-
munity and Bene St Clair at Woodville.
Bene Aged Care is an independent
provider of aged care services. Since
its establishment four decades ago, it
has succeeded in earning a reputation
for setting benchmarks in high-quality
aged care. Its income, which was at a
level of $6.9 million in 2000 has risen
to $34 million currently.
In the same period, the
number of residents at
its facilities has risen
to 254 from 168. The
number of community
packages has also shot up to over 300
from 71.
The Living Longer Living Better and
Consumer Directed Care reforms have
provided direction to the organisation
to embark on a programme to train its
customer facing personnel in the spe-
cific knowledge and skills required for
‘selling’ aged care services. The focus
of this exercise is to bring about even
better outcomes for customers and
also for the business across residen-
tial, community and home care servic-
es.
Rebranding
The aged care services offered by the
organisation centre around several es-
sential aspects, all of which have to do
with the Italian heritage
of the founders. These in-
clude the food, the pas-
sion with which services
are delivered and the re-
spect and love for family
that is inherent in Italian culture.
In 2014, the Bene Board realised
that it was important to convey this to
The Italian Benevolent Foundation
was established in 1974 by a group of
community leaders who saw that there
was a need for high-quality aged care
services to cater to the growing Italian
community in South Australia. Bene
Aged Care, a fully owned subsidiary of
the Italian Benevolent Foundation SA
Incorporated, has three facilities in the
Adelaide metropolitan area.
Aged Care, Italian Style