Service FinderThe ECH philosophy was shaped by its founder Garnet E Rundle, a visionary who recognised the need for affordable retirement housing for older South Australians especially war widows.
In 1964, Rundle placed an advertisement in The Advertiser newspaper seeking expressions of interest to form an organisation to assist older people. Five people responded and the Elderly Citizens Homes of SA was created at their first meeting. It was later registered as an incorporated association on 2 July 1964.
Elderly Citizens Homes expanded into the residential care sector and developed a reputation for the delivery of quality service that still exists today. The organisation’s name was simplified to ECH in the 1970s to reflect the changes in service while retaining the essence of the name given to it by Rundle.
In 2014, ECH divested all of its residential care centres in order to return to the original vision laid out by Rundle 50 years before – to enable people to live the best life possible as they age and continue to live independently and confidently at home.
Today, ECH stands for ‘Enabling Confidence at Home’ and all services are designed to support you to stay who you are, where you are.
Supporting more than 15,000 South Australians, ECH is the leading provider of integrated retirement living accommodation and ageing care services in South Australia.