Migrating to Australia: aged care provision
26 July 2016 by News Desk
For those migrating to Australia aged care services may not be top of the list but “It is an important element when considering the future, and the well being of older family members,” says Darrell Todd, founder of thinkingaustralia.
The aged care system in Australia provides a range of services that support older people, and a number of people with disability, in both residential and community-based settings.
Services are provided on the basis of need rather than specific age criteria.
Services are generally aimed at those aged 65 and over but with an active ageing population future services are being planned for those aged 70 and over.
The majority of aged care provision is funded by the Australian Government and a recent program of reforms has driven improvements in the services available.
These reforms included the launch of the My Aged Care gateway, the establishment of the Aged Care Pricing Commissioner, changes to fees and charges in residential aged care and the commencement of the new Home Care Packages Programme.
Migrating to Australia – aged care provision
People seeking to access aged care services must first contact My Aged Care. Staff at the contact centre will create a central client record and determine which services may be appropriate.
They may refer the person for either a home support assessment conducted by the Regional Assessment Service (which may lead to a referral to Commonwealth Home Support Programme services), or a comprehensive assessment conducted by an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT).
ACAT must assess and approve a person before they can access government-funded residential aged care, Home Care or flexible aged care services (such as Transition Care). ACAT provides an approval for both the type and level of care.
In 2015, almost 400,000 Australians received services through residential aged care, Home Care or Transition Care—some people received services through more than one of these programs during the year.
There were a total of 273,503 operational aged care places across Australia. An operational place is a place in government-funded aged care which is either occupied by an approved care recipient, or available to be occupied.
Migrating to Australia – aged care provision
Permanent residential aged care – 59% of people in permanent residential care are aged 85 and over. Only 6,400 people are aged under 65 and 570 people aged under 50. The number and proportion of younger people in permanent aged care has fallen in recent years, now people aged under 50 make up less than 1% of the total.
Two-thirds (68%) of people in permanent residential aged care at 30 June 2015 were women. In the younger age groups, men outnumbered women (there were 2.4 men for each woman aged under 65), but the opposite was true in the older age groups, and the disparity further increased with age.
There were nearly 6.4 women aged 85 and over for each man in the same age group. The average age for a man in permanent residential aged care at 30 June 2015 was 81.7, compared with 85.9 for a woman.
Home Care Package – People first take up a Home Care Package at a slightly younger age than residential aged care. Reflecting this, 1 in 3 people in Home Care at 30 June 2015 (30%) were aged 85 and over.
By remoteness, the majority of Home Care packages (70%) were being delivered by service outlets located in Major cities. However, age-specific usage rates showed that below age 75, people receiving services from outlets located in Remote and Very remote areas had higher rates of use than people in other remoteness areas
Australian states spent almost $16 billion on aged care services in 2015.
3 in 4 operational places in government-funded aged care services (72%) were in residential aged care at 30 June 2015, with Home Care accounting for 27% of the total 273,503 places.
In 2015 a total of 231,000 people were in permanent residential aged care. Around 50,000 people were in respite residential aged care and 84,000 people received a Home Care Package.
Two out of every three people in permanent residential aged care are women and 61% are aged 85 and over.
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