Starter Kit. Idea 342 of 500. Cluster 17
Assisted-living homes for the parents of Sri Lankans abroad, with the standard published and inspected
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans abroad have parents at home whom they cannot look after from Melbourne. They will pay, and the money stays.
The first step
Write a one-page standard for the residence you would run: staff per resident, meals, visiting hours, what gets inspected and by whom, and a monthly price range. Send it to 20 Sri Lankans abroad through a Sri Lankan association's newsletter and ask one question: would they pay a refundable deposit to hold a room for a parent. The deposits, or the objections, become your design brief.
- Who pays first
- A child abroad whose widowed parent lives alone, who wants a published standard to point to before asking that parent to move.
- What leaves today
- Sri Lankans abroad already pay for care they cannot inspect; a published, inspected standard is the proof that turns that money into a building, jobs and fees on the island.
Ask first
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what inspections a residence for older people must pass.
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask whether the building may be used as a residential home.
Check before you spend
The registration a residential home for elders needs, fire and building safety, and who inspects it, so the standard you publish is checked by someone.
Find out these three numbers
- What monthly price would families abroad pay for a room?
- How many families would pay a refundable deposit?
- How many staff per resident does your standard require?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka House, the scoreboard. Chapter Seventeen
"Every country announces impact. Almost none of them puts the number in a public place"
Publish the standard and the inspection results where families abroad can check them.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.