This website contains a selection of publications and presentations by Mike Rungie about life as a frail older person. They aim to tell the emerging story of this complex life stage.

Older people just think of themselves as wearing out because they have been around for a while. But always citizens in every sense. Yet ageism abounds, and the rest of us are “taught” to fear being old and to admire youth, newness, productivity and beauty. So, older people are increasingly excluded or “put out to pasture” from the time of voluntary or forced retirement, And once excluded, it’s easy for the rest of us to imagine they need less and can offer us less.

Aged care in Australia has evolved over a long time to respond to frail older people “dressed up” like this. It does provide reliable care that the rest of us no longer want to do, or can’t do. But the price is high for frail elders, and they find themselves giving up everything they hold dear to get this care.

The rest of us watch on, resigned to this being how you “do” being frail, still very fond of our elders, but otherwise displaced by the aged care machinery.

Occasionally, individuals, groups, entities and even governments see all this for what it is and seek to change it. But aged care has to date proven to be an impenetrable fortress.

The publications and presentations on this website seek to tell the story free of the ageist messaging that has brought us to this point. They embrace a desire to understand and maximise this beautiful, emerging life stage, and begin to shape what an aged care that maximises frail lives might look like.