Aged care grows by half in past decade
The number of aged care places in residential facilities and community based care rose by 46% between June 2002 and June last year, according to new information released yesterday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The information shows that at June last year there were nearly 253,000 government subsidised aged care places, accounting for $12.9 billion of government spending.
According to AIHW spokesperson, Dr Pamela Kinnear, most of the growth in places has been in community based care (care provided to people to help them stay in their own homes).
“There is now one community based aged care place for every three residential aged care places, compared with one for every four in 2008,” Dr Kinnear says.
In 2012, 21% of community care places were for high level care, and this has gradually increased since 2002 when high level community care was introduced.
“Many older Australians prefer to remain in the community as long as possible, and during 2011-12, nearly 80,000 people received a package of care to help them stay in the community,” Dr Kinnear says.
The typical age of clients in community care programs was 83, about three years younger than clients in permanent residential aged care. Women outnumbered men by more than two to one in both community and residential aged care, and about one in three care recipients were born overseas.
Indigenous Australians tended to use both mainstream residential aged care services and community aged care at younger ages than non-Indigenous Australians.
Among all permanent residents, 80% of those aged 65 years or older were classified as requiring high level care, but among residents aged under 65, the proportion requiring high level care was 87%.
Permanent residents in governmentsubsidised aged care facilities who had a diagnosis of dementia were more likely than other residents to be assessed as requiring high care – 90% compared with 70%.
In recent years, there also has been a trend towards fewer but larger aged care services.
