Dementia care no longer a niche service
“Dementia management is no longer a niche area of aged care, but a necessary core competency required by anyone working in home care or residential care,” says Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) chief executive officer (CEO), Patrick Reid.
The comment is a response to the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report into Residential Aged Care and Home Care, which shows demand for age services and the complexity of people’s needs is growing, and new management strategies are needed.
The report, released last week, shows 83 percent of people in permanent care needed a high level of care, and people living in residential aged care had higher rates of dementia than estimated prevalence for their age.
“Many LASA members are at the forefront of delivering innovative, cutting edge models of care for people with dementia, but they are largely unsupported by government which does not treat dementia as a mainstream issue,” Mr Reid says.
“Providing age services to people with dementia requires a different approach today than it has in the past. This includes ensuring home care and residential care staff have the right skills and access to suitable training.
“It also means ensuring suitable services are readily accessible to people in their communities – not on a fly in fly out schedule,” according to Mr Reid.
“The current government cannot ignore the data in this report and should hold a second Dementia summit that it promised to properly review and consider policy options in light of this new evidence.”
