The Productivity Commission has released its report into aged care, suggesting a range of reforms that would allow for greater choices and flexibility for the elderly.

 

The Caring for Older Australians report identifies a variety of future challenges, including the increased numbers and expectations of older people coinciding with a decrease in the number of informal carers and the need for workers.

 

The report highlights the following challenges to the industry:

  • a significant increase in the number of older people
  • an increasing incidence of age-related disability and disease, especially dementia
  • rising expectations about the type and flexibility of care that is received
  • community concerns about variability in the quality of care
  • a relative decline in the number of informal carers
  • a need for significantly more nurses and personal care workers with enhanced skills.

 

The report finds that over a million Australians receive aged care services and that although the quality of the services have improved over the past decades, but concedes that more must be done. The report finds that the system suffers from systemic key weaknesses including the difficulty of navigating bureaucracy, poor consumer choice and limited selection of services.

 

The Commission makes a number of proposals to redress the weaknesses in an integrated package of reforms that would allow older Australian’s to:

  • be able to contact a simplified ‘gateway’ for: easily understood information; an assessment of their care needs and their financial capacity to contribute to the cost of their care; an entitlement to approved aged care services; and for care coordination — all in their region
  • receive aged care services that address their individual needs, with an emphasis on reablement where feasible
  • choose whether to receive care at home, and choose their approved provider
  • contribute, in part, to their costs of care (with a maximum lifetime limit) and meet their accommodation and living expenses (with safety nets for those of limited means)
  • have access to a government-sponsored line of credit (the Australian Aged Care Home Credit scheme), to help meet their care and accommodation expenses without having to sell their home. A person’s spouse, or other ‘protected person’ would be able to continue living in that home when an older person moved into residential care
  • choose to pay either a periodic charge or a bond for residential care accommodation
  • if they wish to sell their home, retain their Age Pension by investing the sale proceeds in an Australian Age Pensioners Savings Account
  • be able to choose whether to purchase additional services and higher quality accommodation.

 

The report also suggests that the limits on the number of residential places and care packages to be phased out while distinctions between residential low and high care and between ordinary and extra service status would be removed.

 

“Aged care can be greatly improved. Government policies, programs and regulations, and the services offered by community groups and businesses, need to be redesigned around the wellbeing of older people and be delivered in ways that respect their dignity and support their independence. Services need to be affordable for older people and for society in general,” the report finds.

 

The full report can be found here