Details on young people in residential aged care
A Younger People with Disability in Residential Aged Care Program: Report on the 2008-09 Minimum Data Set, report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that in 2008–09, a total of 817 people received services funded by the Younger People with Disability in Residential Aged Care (YPIRAC) program.
This was a 41 % increase over the previous year. The YPIRAC program aims to reduce the number of people with disability under the age of 65 who live in residential aged care.
It also shows that three-quarters of service users were under 50 years of age, the initial priority group for the program.
“Over the first three years of the program, over 90 people moved out of residential aged care to more age-appropriate supported disability accommodation,” said Anne Aisbett of the AIHW’s Functioning and Disability Unit.
“In the same period, more than 300 people were provided with enhanced services within a residential aged care setting and almost 150 were diverted from inappropriate admission to residential aged care,” she said.
In 2008-09, nearly half of all service users had a primary disability relating to acquired brain injury, and another 29% had a neurological primary disability.
Almost two-thirds of YPIRAC service users in 2008–09 lived in residential aged care and of these, nearly 2 in 5 reported that their main reason for living there was because appropriate alternative accommodation was not available.
About one-third of service users were to remain in residential aged care, but with additional support services.
In 2008–09, of all 817 YPIRAC service users, 234 were offered alternative accommodation. Of these, 75 people in residential aged care and 49 people at risk of entering residential aged care moved to alternative accommodation, such as private residences, domestic-scale supported living facilities and supported accommodation.
The Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, Bill Shorten, welcomed the report.
“Under our new health and hospitals reform agenda, the Australian Government will take over full responsibility for aged care. Supporting people with disability under the age of 65, including those in residential aged care, will be funded under the National Disability Agreement,” Ms Macklin said.
“For the first time, this will deliver clear incentives for the disability service system to provide more appropriate accommodation options for younger people with disability,” she said.
