Abstract

Laverty, Martin This article is a slightly edited version of a speech given by Martin Laverty to the 2013 Annual General Meeting of the Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics. It views the movement towards consumer-directed care in Australia not as a threat to Catholic health and aged care, but as an opportunity to deepen our understanding of our mission and to develop services which are distinctive in their commitment to providing excellent care in response to the changing needs of the community. It explores consumer-directed care, highlights limitations in our current understanding of mission and ethics, and challenges us to be prophetic as the founders of our institutions were in responding to community need.