Improving Indigenous Aged Care

The Minister for Ageing, Mrs Justine Elliot, has detailed the next stage of the Australian Government’s $46 million Indigenous Aged Care Plan, which includes the first overnight aged care service at Mutitjulu near Uluru, and a general works and equipment program to lift standards.

There are 30 nursing homes and hostels with significant Indigenous populations and 29 Aboriginal flexible aged care services in Australia.

As part of the next stage of the Indigenous Aged Care Plan, the Australian Government has made the following plans, subject to appropriate community consultation:

• in-principle approval to create eight flexible care beds in Mutitjulu’s first permanent overnight aged care service;
• a $1 million grant to Frontier Services to build overnight staff accommodation at Mutitjulu to retain staff;
• an $800,000 grant to MacDonnell Shire Council to provide overnight staff accommodation at Tjilpi Pampaku Ngara (Docker River) Flexible Aged Care Service to retain staff at this remote aged care service;
• in-principle approval to create a 10 place flexible residential aged care service in East Arnhem Land, following representations at Community Cabinet on 23 July; and
• a $200,000 grant to assist the Aboriginal Community Elders Service in East Brunswick (Melbourne), which provides 25 residential aged care places and 69 community care places, to help them to assess their capacity to come under the operation of the Aged Care Act 1997, and the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency.

Further action under the Indigenous Aged Care Plan includes:

• working on the new quality standards for flexible Indigenous specific aged care services which are due to be in place by mid-2009;
• a general building and equipment works program with works being undertaken by teams of tradespeople to the Indigenous specific aged care services in early 2009;
• Helping 11 of the 29 Aboriginal flexible aged care services to improve their protection around open pit fires used by elders under a $500,000 plan,  (Interim fire place protection devices from the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs have been delivered to the Docker River Aged Care Service and have been installed);
• Completion of the national quality and risk site visits by the Department of Health and Ageing to all 29 flexible Indigenous specific aged care services to identify problems to be fixed;
• Establishing the NT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Aged Care Workforce Development Initiative, focussing on developing an Aboriginal community aged care workforce in the NT under the NT Emergency Response.