Australia’s ‘first’ home care packages
A total of 5,835 new home care packages will provide vital services to allow Australians to stay in their own homes, while 7,775 new residential aged care places will also be established.
A total of 5,835 new home care packages will provide vital services to allow Australians to stay in their own homes, while 7,775 new residential aged care places will also be established.
The announcement was made last Friday by incoming Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Senator Jacinta Collins, as part of more than $500 million in new annual aged care funding.
Home care packages are specially tailored to older people’s care needs, with services including personal care, house cleaning and home modifications, transport and clinical care.
The 2012-13 Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR) will also provide aged care homes with $51 million in capital grants while $156 million in zero real interest loans will help them build or upgrade.
Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and special needs groups will also receive significant new capital funding as well as residential places, such as:
- $11million and 60 residential places to establish a new aged care home in Melbourne for people from the Indo-Chinese community;
- $12.5 million and 19 residential places to redevelop and expand an aged care home for Indigenous Australians in Queensland’s Logan River Valley;
- $3.95 million and 14 residential places for new accommodation at Lionsbrae Hostel in Melbourne for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
“My predecessor Mark Butler did a terrific job in introducing significant aged care reforms under the Living Longer Living Better 10year plan and I am pleased to continue that important work with this $505 million package,” Minister Collins said.
“The federal government is building a better and fairer aged care system so that older Australians can look forward to more certainty and greater choice of care in their later years,” she added.
The reforms will reportedly allow more Australians to remain in their own homes as the federal government increases the number of home care packages from 60,000 to about 140,000 over the next decade.
Home care packages will be provided on a Consumer Directed Care basis, meaning older Australians and their carers will have a greater say in the services they receive as well as how they are delivered.
