Newly elected chair of Goodwin Aged Care Services, Liesel Wett, said Canberra's ageing population means service providers need to start planning for future demand now.

Ms Wett, 44, is the youngest and first female chair of Goodwin Aged Care Services, Canberra's largest not-for-profit employer.

"One of the biggest things we're seeing at Goodwin is that people are leaving it longer to come into our residential aged care facilities so they're a lot sicker and frailer and that has implications on the sort of care that we give," she said.

"Having said that, the upside of that is that people are staying in their homes for longer so one of the things we also do is a run a large community program where we go into people's homes and help them with all sorts of things - nursing, meals on wheels, all those sorts of things.

"If people can stay in their homes for longer, they're happier, they're familiar with their community and their environment."

Ms Wett said Goodwin worked closely with the ACT government to look at future needs.

"We work with people like ACT planning, the Chief Minister and the health department about what we are going to need or deliver for the future and what are we planning for now because the decisions we make now might not come to fruition for another ten years so you've got to have smart people on board to be making those strategic decisions to make sure we are planning for Canberra's next generation of older people," she said.

"Everyone deserves care at the end of their lives. These are people that have invested their lives, paying taxes and working hard for Canberra so we should be looking after them."

Ms Wett said Goodwin had expanded to provide more independent living and transitional accommodation such as The Central, a newly opened development in Crace. They also recently launched a day centre in Queanbeyan.

Ms Wett was elected chair in October after serving four years as vice-chair of Goodwin.

The 44-year-old, who is currently chief executive of Pathology Australia, has held a number of senior executive health position, including chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and deputy chief executive of the Australia General Practice Network.

"Part of why I got involved in the (health system in the) first place was because I wanted to make a difference and I wanted to give something back to the Canberra community," she said.

"I think there's more we can do in health and in aged care and the integration of the health sector, it gets very fragmented so if I can bring some of my expertise and learnings from other parts of the health sector to try and improve things for people that have worked hard all their lives, they deserve to party on into their years.

"You get a lot of rewards from seeing people active and healthy."