With €37 million in annual turnover and over 1,250 employees, CareMalta Group is the largest operator of care-for-the-elderly services on the island. Its CEO, Natalie Briffa Farrugia, has set her sights firmly on diversification, with the group reaching out to innovative sectors of care through its new operations and growing network of specialised care homes in the community
Natalie has always wanted to use her career to do one thing: care for others. Born into the entrepreneurial Vassallo Group family, she feels fortunate that the Group already had a caring arm within its operation when she joined the business 12 years ago, which she has been dedicated to developing it ever since.
“The CareMalta Group has grown substantially since then,” she says with a smile, acknowledging that the company’s revenue tripled since she took the helm.
Natalie talks through the sizable operation she oversees: over 1,600 elderly people reside in the nine CareMalta homes and 200 families are receiving respite services for children and older adults with disabilities through HILA Ltd. A further 60 clients reside in the Group’s specialised care homes in the community.
“I feel the responsibility for all the families we cater for and I am fixated on the future of care on our island,” she says.
For Natalie, the business of caring for people is built upon three clear pillars: compassion, engagement and professionalism. “I completely own these words in my own career and feel I am very much defined by them,” she insists, adding that the terms have also been used to underpin the Group’s dynamic iCare programme
“iCare was first implemented in May 2018 as part of our vision for 2020, and it now guides all of our team members on how best to carry out their roles. We knew that to remain leaders in this sector we had to ensure that all of our employees were speaking the same language, and that language is iCare.
"There is no getting away from the fact that the care industry is compassion in itself, so the success of anyone working in our industry has to be the result of their genuine compassion. Thankfully, both my own career and the very foundations of this Group were built upon compassion, so it has underpropped everything about us from the very start.”
Explaining engagement, Natalie believes that for her and her team to be successful they must also remain engaged in everything going on in their homes and among their residents. “I have achieved so much simply by remaining engaged; it has allowed me to fulfil my purpose in life and to make me the best I can be for my team and our clients. With that in mind, it absolutely had to be another pillar of iCare.”
Finally, professionalism completed the tri-focus approach and Natalie believes a company simply wouldn’t be able to exist in the caring sector without it. “I seek to be professional in absolutely everything I do,” she says, “And, ultimately, that is what sets CareMalta apart. Our residents deserve only the very best from the service we give them.”
And although unwavering and unapologetic in its desire to be the best, Natalie’s is an approach that is clearly working. CareMalta has transformed the sector since beginning its operations, a sector that was previously exclusively in the hands of the Government and the Church.
“We set out to raise the bar from day one,” she says, explaining that CareMalta was the first public-private-partnership in the industry. “And I am pleased to say that legislation has actually matched our standards since then while we have continued to raise the bar even higher. Some of the features that have become buzzwords in the industry in recent years – like active ageing, person-centred care and holistic care – have been key to our approach since 1994. It excites us that we lead the way in this sector, and we don’t intend to relinquish pole position.”
For Natalie, that ongoing success will continue to revolve around developing person-centred care, a strategy she says underlines every decision made. “No discussion ever starts from any other focus point,” she says. “But, equally, when talking about residents, you cannot ever forget their family, or our employees; the needs of all three have to be taken into consideration.
“After all, there is no denying that demand in this area is going to grow. People are living longer and, already, most of our residents average around the age of 85. The longer people live, the more likely it is that they won’t be able to be cared for in their own homes. So, while we can’t and never will try to replace their own families, we have to be able to make them feel happy and at home.”
Narrowing in on the successes of 2019, Natalie highlights a collaboration agreement with the Department of Health as a vital milestone. “Through it we realised that a number of elderly people were receiving services at Mount Carmel Hospital, which really wasn’t the best place for them. We have been able to make great strides to fix that since then.
“As part of our vision for the future, I don’t actually see CareMalta opening more homes for the elderly. Malta doesn’t need them, and we will soon have an oversupply because of the rate at which new players are entering the market.”
Thus, CareMalta plans to reach out to the many other groups within society that need support. For instance, it recently collaborated with Aġenzija Sapport to provide respite services in the community, through HILA, at Casa Apap Bologna, Mosta. “Our plan is to continue to specialise in smaller homes in the community and to provide much-needed care, whether to those with an intellectual disability, a physical disability, or those with mental health illnesses. Our society is crying out for this kind of support and we intend to provide it.”
Looking ahead, Natalie switches her attention to dementia care, an area she is personally very passionate about. “Sadly, this is going to affect many, many people in the years to come,” she says. “As a nation, we are lucky to have a dementia strategy in place but there is no blueprint for its implementation, and I don’t think that anyone is prepared to face the new phenomenon that this will bring to our country. As a company, dementia has always been part of our development strategy and it is part of our wider plan for specialisation.”
As for the CareMalta outlook for 2020, Natalie has no doubt that this will be positive, and largely focused on the continued roll out of iCare and the benefits it will bring.
“With our approach now firmly benefitting our residents, I am very eager to ensure that iCare is further established to guarantee our employees also experience its advantages. The future – of all business – should be based on improving the employee’s quality of life because it brings about such a positive knock-on effect and we want it to become a way of life for our team both inside and outside work hours.”
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