Warrigal and Multicultural Aged Care Illawarra (MACI) have progressed with a merger to ensure that the MACI Warrawong care home and village remains operational and viable.

MACI operates a residential care home for 100 people in Warrawong, with eight retirement living units. Given the challenges of the last few years with COVID-19 outbreaks and the increased compliance burden in the aged care sector, the MACI Board realised that as a single standalone service provider it became impossible to remain viable. They then reached out to Warrigal to ensure the continuation of the unique multicultural aged care services for older people in their community.

Changes being implemented since the Aged Care Royal Commission have forced providers to recognise that scale is important to remain viable, and having the resources of a large service provider, like Warrigal, is of a huge benefit to the residents and staff they support. The federal Department of Health and Aged Care fully support the merger with MACI and have offered financial assistance to support the full transition process to ensure it is successful.

Warrigal recognised the critical role that MACI plays, not only in the Warrawong community but also more broadly for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds across the Illawarra. Over the last 33 years, MACI has been a very special not-for-profit organisation with a voluntary Board and wonderful staff. They have provided a unique multicultural affordable service and the merger with Warrigal ensures that the service continues to serve its community for many years to come.

The residents of MACI are being supported by Warrigal’s award-winning aged care service support system to ensure that Warrigal’s vision, values and purpose to “support older people to create inspiring communities” remains as relevant today as when Warrigal was established by a voluntary board 55 years ago.

MACI CEO, Stephen Beard said, “We’re looking forward to working with Warrigal in the coming months and thank them for their consideration of the immediate takeover that occurred on October 11, with a gradual integration and handover to occur over the next 6 months. MACI was built from the ground up with no other intention than to provide essential services to older people in our local region. This merger is just a further development to this history, and one that everyone should feel happy and secure with Warrigal’s backing and understanding of our mission.”

Stephen continued, “We thank our existing voluntary directors who now handover the leadership of the company to the Warrigal directors. We welcome their experience and passion for older people and look forward to introducing them to MACI operations from October 13.”

This exciting merger also aligns with Warrigal’s strategic plan, Towards 2030, with its commitment to enlarging Warrigal’s aged care and retirement living services to ensure every person in our community who wants to use Warrigal’s well regarded, highly valued and integrated services can do so.

Warrigal CEO, Mark Sewell, said “I am joined by the Warrigal board in thanking the outgoing MACI board for their years of dedicated service to the Wollongong community, and for selecting Warrigal to consider the merger opportunity. We are honoured by the trust shown by MACI to take the service forward as our 12^th residential care home, which is centrally located between our Wollongong and Shellharbour services.”

In the last year, Warrigal has continued its goal of providing housing and care for even more older people; it has had a rapid expansion and now has 1,750 staff and 400 volunteers at 23 services, across 14 different locations in two states. All 111 staff at MACI will remain employed and MACI will continue operating as its own identity as a subsidiary of Warrigal, until they assume full responsibility in 2023.