Donald Macaskill, CEO of Scottish Care, closed earlier ITAC this month with a keynote on the shift from person-centred care to person-led care.

Person-centred care grew out of the disability civil rights movement of the 1970s and '80s, and was a significant change when it arrived. The language is now everywhere (in policy, in practice, in job ads), and a lot of the urgency and power-change of the original idea has worn off. Donald's argument goes further: person-centredness still gets the power dynamic wrong. The person sits at the centre, and around them sit the clinicians, carers and commentators in their life, leaving the person at risk of being done to and spoken for. Person-led starts from the primacy of agency. The individual is in charge of their own life, even with reduced capacity — "the driver in the seat, the leader on the stage."

Donald sat down for a long-form conversation with Dr George Margelis and Dr Louise Schaper on the Pulse: Amplify podcast. He also draws on Scotland's human rights and co-design approach, why he treats AI in care as a choice providers can shape, and on the one thing he thinks machines may never properly understand — laughter.

Available on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts

Last Tuesday I hosted Elyssia Clark (Benetas), Justina Gardiner (LightSpeed Consulting) and Hanaa' Grave (culturalQ, MCCSA) for a live Q&A on who actually makes aged care decisions in 2026. The session was supported by Blue Sky Community Services.

A few of the threads from the hour:

1 - Today's aged care consumer compares you against every organisation they deal with — banks, telcos, supermarkets, hospitals — and by the time they pick up the phone, most of the buying decision is already made.

2 - The decision usually moves through a network — partners and children, often with an eldest daughter doing the research.

3 - Today's consumer reflects the new Australian mainstream — multicultural, multilingual, and drawn from many faith traditions.

👉 The full recap, with the conversation in six parts and the points the panel raised on AI, language, channels, cultural competence and where to start, is here.

It's packed with insight and worth taking a look.

Thursday 11 June | 9am–4pm AEST | Novotel Melbourne on Collins | Free for CHSP and Support at Home providers

A full-day forum for CHSP and Support at Home-funded allied health teams. I'm speaking on AI; other sessions cover navigating change, improving referrals, dignity of risk, managing service agreements, interdisciplinary practice and change fatigue. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing is hosting a Q&A responding to questions submitted in advance.

Hosted by SSD Connect

Monday 15 June | 2pm AEST | Online | Free

I'm running this webinar with Ageing Australia. The session covers where AI sits in the sector right now, the Three Tiers of AI in Aged Care framework, and where Tier 1 (the generic tools — ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot — already in use across the sector) is creating risk and opportunity. For executives, operational managers, governance professionals and anyone responsible for technology decisions in their organisation.

Hosted by Ageing Australia

Tuesday 16 June | 9.30am–12pm AEST | Online | Free for CHSP and Support at Home providers

A hands-on workshop for desk-based aged care staff working with AI on routine tasks — drafting, summarising, problem-solving. Covers what current tools can and can't do, prompting fundamentals, privacy and accuracy considerations, and what data should never go into a public AI tool. Participants get a dedicated resource page with prompts and templates afterwards. No technical background needed.

Hosted by SSD Connect

Tuesday 16 June | 2–3.30pm AEST | Online | Free

I'm presenting a walk-through of the refreshed Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Generative AI in Aged Care. The original Guidelines have been in use for 12 months across more than 100 aged care organisations. The update reflects what providers have done with them and how the AI landscape has shifted. The session covers what's changed, why, and how to adopt or refresh the Guidelines in your own organisation, with Q&A at the end. For providers across the sector — managers, governance and compliance staff.

Hosted by AI Adoption in Aged Care workgroup

A BBC Future feature on Dr Hannah Critchlow's new book The 21st Century Brain. Critchlow's argument is that as AI takes on more cognitive heavy lifting, a particular set of human skills rises in value — emotional intelligence, empathy, creativity, tolerance for uncertainty, and long-term thinking. The list reads like the job description of a care coordinator.

A short documentary by Åsa Blanck and Johan Palmgren. A young boy and his bedridden grandfather walk into the forest in search of chanterelles. The grandfather senses he is near the end of his days, and the expedition turns out to be about more than mushrooms. I liked it because it moves between humour and tenderness, letting you decide which to feel.

A large long-term study covered by ScienceDaily. People drinking two to three cups of coffee a day showed a measurably lower risk of dementia, with the effect strongest before age 75. Researchers think caffeine helps protect brain cells; the study is observational, so it shows association rather than cause.

The recap page of last week’s webinar was built as a Claude artifact — a self-contained file (a web page, a document, a dashboard, a small interactive tool) that Claude builds for you in the chat. You preview it, refine it in conversation, and download or share when it's ready. No code involved.

What I gave Claude:

1 - The session transcript

2 - A short document with the panel description and bios

3 - My three brand colours

Three things worth knowing if you want to try:

i - Tell Claude what the output is for. A recap page for attendees reads differently from an internal brief.

ii - Let it ask you questions. Open with "let's discuss it first before you go ahead" rather than "build me a page." The question list surfaces decisions you hadn't thought about.

iii - Iterate by chatting. "Move the panellists section up." "The stats callout is too loud." One sentence each, and the page updates in front of you.

Same approach works for meeting summaries with action items, a one-page briefing from a long PDF, or a draft internal dashboard from a spreadsheet.

Each week, I review developments in ageing and aged care and what they mean in practice. If this was useful, forward it to someone in the sector who'd appreciate it.

George Gouzounis