Minister for Ageing speaks at Ageing Population Summit

The Minister for Ageing Justine Elliot  has spoken about the challenges facing community care in Australia, at an Ageing Population Summit in Melbourne on 24 July.

She restated the government’s commitment to a review of community care begun by the previous government, and repeated government initiatives to provide more short-term residential aged care options for older Australians.

She conceded that consumers often find the current system difficult to navigate.

“We recognise that although the community care services are meeting the needs of many people, the system is unnecessarily complex and somewhat fragmented – making it hard for many people to find the services they need,” she said.

The Minister said the government’s initiatives would be aimed at improving accessibility.

“While continuing to fund expansion in community care, we will review and improve the range of community care programs, and particularly the administrative arrangements that apply across programs,” she said.

“The result will be a simpler, fairer, more consumer focused system that dovetails with the broader aged care system.”

The Minister acknowledged that residential care clients are older and frailer than in the past and that we need more sub-acute and short-term residential options for older Australians.

“There will be [a] need for intensive medical care that lies between acute and long-term care as well as intermittent residential care,” said Mrs Elliot.