$60.6 million boost to support Victoria’s seniors

A $60.6 million package to support senior Victorians is part of the Brumby Labor government’s 2009-10 budget action to assist them in remaining independent at home.

In announcing the details, the Minister for Senior Victorians, Lisa Neville, said personal security, independence at home and planning for more accessible aged care were key features of the Brumby Labor government’s 2009 state budget package for senior Victorians.

Central to the package is increasing access to support services, including:

• $49.8 million, four-year boost to employ 250 additional staff for the Home and Community Care (HACC) Program which provides help at home to do cleaning, shopping, minor maintenance, bill payment, personal care, meals on wheels, podiatry, physiotherapy, dietetics, occupational therapy and many other supports to ensure that senior Victorians can live safely and happily in their own home;
• $5.8 million over four years to provide more personal alert units to an additional 4,000 senior Victorians though Personal Alert Victoria Program. The Brumby Labor government-funded Personal Alert Victoria (PAV) is a personal monitoring service for seniors. It includes emergency response and daily monitoring. A pendant, with an alert button direct to the PAV service, is worn around the neck or wrist. When pressed, the button sends a signal to a receiver unit which then automatically contacts the PAV Service, which has trained staff on call 24 hours a day. The number of PAV units for seniors will increase to 22,255 by June this year, up from 8,200 in 1999;
• $3 million in 2009-10 for stage four of the Aged Care Land Bank, to help establish more residential aged care services in middle and inner ring suburbs, allowing senior Victorians to access residential aged care without having to move away from their family and local neighbourhoods. Under the program, the government purchases surplus government land in the middle and inner suburbs and gives it to not-for-profit agencies to build aged care facilities; and
• $2 million over the next two years to boost to the already successful Men’s Shed program, providing a relaxed place for men make new friends, talk things over, learn new skills and get involved in their local community, with great benefits for their health and wellbeing. In the past two years the Brumby Labor government funded the establishment of 50 new Men’s Sheds across the Victoria.

“These investments come on top of $1 million recently allocated to expand seniors’ registers, which look out for senior Victorians and people with a disability living alone, as a response to this January’s heatwave,” Ms Neville said.