Care needs increasing for people in residential aged care

More aged care residents are requiring higher levels of care, says a report – Residential Aged Care in Australia 2005-06: a statistical overview- just released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The report showed that as at 30 June 2006, 69% of permanent residents required high level care compared with 58% in 1998.

Over the same period, the proportion of residents requiring low level care had declined from 38% to 31%, coinciding with a period of significant expansion in Community Aged Care Packages which are designed for the same client group.

Other features include:

· Over half of all permanent residents are in the 85 years or older age group.
· In 2005-06, there were 2,129 new high care residential places and 3,099 new low care residential places allocated to approved service providers.
· 166,291 places were provided in 2006, compared with 161,756 in 2005.
· Occupancy rates have decreased slightly from 96% in 2003-04 to just over 95% in 2005-06.
· The highest occupancy rate was in the ACT (98%) while the lowest was in Victoria (93%).
· The average size of residential aged care facilities has continued to grow, with an average of 60 places per facility in 2006 compared with about 46 places in 1998.
· 154,872 people were in residential aged care at the close of the financial year in 2006 of whom 151,737 were permanent residents and 3,135 were respite residents.
· The average length of stay for permanent residents who left residential aged care during 2005-06 was 167 weeks for women and 109 weeks for men.