Webinar 5: Principle 3 – Access the outdoors

Redesigning Aged Care for Nature Access

Australia's residential aged care sector is undergoing significant reform following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which exposed systemic shortcomings including institutional, inward-focused environments that isolate residents. In response, the government introduced the National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines in 2024, structured around four core principles, with Principle 3 explicitly requiring facilities to support residents in seeing, accessing, and spending time outdoors in contact with nature.

This emphasis arrives as the new Aged Care Act progresses implementation, placing greater scrutiny on accommodation quality. Poor outdoor access has long compounded health issues for residents, many of whom are frail, have mobility constraints, or live with dementia—groups particularly vulnerable to the effects of limited fresh air, sunlight, and natural stimulation. Research consistently links outdoor time with reduced agitation, better mood, improved sleep, and slower functional decline, benefits that indoor settings struggle to match.

The real-world impact hits hardest in facilities where outdoor spaces are absent, inaccessible, or uninviting, leaving residents confined indoors for much of their day. This contributes to higher rates of depression, physical deconditioning, and social withdrawal, increasing demands on staff and care costs over time. For an ageing population where residential care houses a growing number of people, these design shortcomings translate to poorer quality of life at scale.

Concrete stakes involve regulatory compliance and sector-wide shifts: providers must assess and upgrade environments using tools like the Care Home Assessment Tool, with non-alignment risking poorer performance under new standards. Retrofitting gardens, paths, and connections to nature entails upfront costs and ongoing maintenance, especially in a climate prone to heatwaves and poor air quality days. Yet the cost of inaction includes accelerated health deterioration among residents and potential reputational or funding pressures as expectations rise.

Less obvious angles include the tension between universal design ideals—wide, safe paths, shaded seating, sensory-rich planting—and practical constraints like infection control, fall prevention, or resident wandering risks. Providers also navigate competing priorities: investing in outdoors versus urgent indoor upgrades. Extreme Australian weather adds complexity, forcing decisions about seasonal usability and climate-resilient features.