Everywhere I've been to in China, I was amazed by how intensively older people use parks and public spaces, doing tai chi at dawn, playing chess under pavilions, singing opera in groups, or chatting on benches. It's a pattern distinctly different from Australia, where older adults are often minority users of public parks.

I then came across a study on this, and what I found particularly interesting is that almost 40% of older adults encountered the activities by chance while visiting the parks and then joined later on (rather than through planned meetups or online platforms). This highlights parks' role as spontaneous social connectors; older adults simply show up, see an activity happening in a pavilion and join in.

The photo below is from a park in Xi’an, where I am now. A group of older people played music at sunset and drew a small audience. (At first I thought they were busking, but they were just having fun!)

Last week, I read that NASA invites people to send their name to the moon. Sounds grand, doesn't it? Here's what actually happens: you type your name into a web form. NASA saves it to a USB. The USB goes on a rocket. The rocket flies around the moon. Your name circles the moon and comes back. You receive a digital certificate as proof of this monumental achievement.

This is participation theatre at scale—the illusion of involvement that feels meaningful without actually being meaningful.

Now consider what aged care is trying to do.

Providers are attempting to create meaningful lives for people whose circumstances have stripped away everything that previously generated meaning organically. Loss of autonomy, disrupted relationships, proximity to death—residential care removes the conditions that made life feel purposeful before.

So we manufacture it. Activities programming. Lifestyle coordination. Person-centred care plans. These are genuine attempts to create joy and connection within impossible constraints. But research shows something uncomfortable: loneliness persists despite extensive activities. Residents can be surrounded by well-intentioned programs and still be profoundly alone.

So, now that we saw what we have in common with NASA, what is the difference?

NASA's stakes are a press release. Ours are human dignity. Every lifestyle coordinator struggling to create genuine engagement, every manager wrestling with the gap between person-centred rhetoric and institutional reality, every staff member watching residents isolated despite full activity calendars—they already know this problem exists.

I wrote an article on Manufacturing Meaning, what organic meaning actually requires, and possible pathways forward that go beyond current frameworks.

Tuesday 10 March, 12–1pm AEDT | Online | Free

Board members, CEOs, and managers have been asking the questions: How do we actually use ChatGPT for documentation? What happens if staff upload resident data? How do we implement AI without triggering compliance issues?

So I brought together the people who can actually answer them.

This panel includes:

I'm genuinely excited about this one. It's rare to have the regulator perspective, the provider experience, and the technical expertise in the same (online) room—ready to answer your questions directly.

If you're responsible for AI decisions at your organisation and want practical answers instead of speculation, this session is for you.

Submit your questions simply by replying to this email.

Wednesday 11 March, 12–1:30pm AEDT | Online | Free

I'm presenting alongside Elena Muller in this session on how providers can prepare for the demographic and technological shifts reshaping aged care.

My segment covers how AI and operational technology can help home care providers grow and adapt as client expectations and workforce realities outpace traditional service models.

Elena will unpack how migration patterns and evolving consumer expectations across cultural groups will reshape service delivery, workforce requirements, and operations over the next two decades.

This session is designed for providers working with culturally diverse communities—or planning to.

1 - ChatGPT Health launches in Australia OpenAI's

ChatGPT Health is now available on a waitlist basis, allowing users to connect medical records and wellness apps for personalised health advice. The platform isn't regulated as a medical device and has no mandatory safety controls or requirement to publish testing data. Medical experts in this article point to cases like a 60-year-old man who developed hallucinations after ChatGPT suggested replacing table salt with sodium bromide, an industrial chemical.

In my opinion, this framing feels like fear-mongering—people already get terrible advice from Dr Google and wellness influencers. The sodium bromide case is user error. Just googling the term, the first result I get is: “It was widely used as an anticonvulsant and a sedative in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but today is only used in veterinary medicine”. The solution isn't blocking access, but teaching AI literacy: understanding these tools offer information not diagnosis, that unusual suggestions need verification, and that critical evaluation is essential.

2 - A German model for dementia care

An interesting idea I came across. In most residential aged care, if you're unhappy with your relative's care, you can complain or move them. What you can't do is change the care provider without changing the home. In some German shared-living arrangements (link in German only), residents hold a tenancy while care comes under a separate contract with an external nursing service. If care isn't working, families switch providers while the person stays put. In more autonomous versions, a committee of residents and family members has formal input into admissions, provider choice, and daily life organisation.

3 - Mismatched priorities in aged care

AI development Johns Hopkins researchers interviewed 49 stakeholders across aged care on their priorities (and AI): older adults, caregivers, clinicians, health system leaders, investors, and developers. Older adults prioritised activities of daily living: mobility, hygiene, feeding. Clinicians focused on medication management. Investors discussed market size and return on investment. This is the conclusion: assisted daily living—the top priority for older adults—generated almost no suggested technology solutions from any group. Even when developers understand what users need, they follow what payers will fund.

PS: After the last newsletter article, “Trading room and board for companionship,” several useful discussions followed. Thank you to Mary Ellen for pointing out that this model already exists in Australia in some form, as shown in examples 1 and 2.

Can you tell when something has been written by AI? Let’s see this example - real or AI?

This initiative stands as a testament to a rich and diverse tapestry of ideas, marking a pivotal moment that underscores its importance and sets the stage for future innovation.

If you said AI, you guessed it right. To deal with this, I have been using an updated version of my custom AI instructions, a short set of rules I use to strip out inflated language, remove common AI tells, and force the text back to plain statements.

Wednesday 12 February, 1pm AEDT | Online | Free

iLA is previewing their new AI prototype, developed as part of the Australian Government's Aged Care Data and Digital Strategy. The tool is designed to help care partners generate and review care plans in as little as 15 minutes using voice or text input on a mobile app. The session will also cover iLA's VR and AR pilot projects, including immersive training modules for support workers and augmented reality tools for demonstrating assistive technology in real environments. Register Here

Tuesday 18 February, 11:30am AEDT | Online | Free

ECCQ's Multicultural Partners team is running a practical workshop on building inclusive volunteer programs. The session challenges the "volunteer shortage" narrative and explores how to engage volunteers from culturally diverse communities. Facilitated by Gigi Lacey. Register Here

Every week, I'm looking into the changes shaping ageing and aged care, and sharing analysis worth your time. If this was useful, forward it to someone in the sector who'd appreciate it.

George Gouzounis