Older Aussies want more choice

Choice is the vehicle for efficiency and effectiveness, according to Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA) National Community Care conference speaker, Carrie Hayter.

Ms Hayter discussed, on Monday (21 May 2012), the concept of ‘choice’ and its influence, or lack of, in Australian health, aged and community care services.

“Older Australians want to choose and arrange their care but there are limited choices for consumers at the moment. People may not be getting what they need. They just get slotted into services, but it’s actually not what they need,” she says.

According to Ms Hayter, there have been failures of the welfare state to respond to individual needs, with power now “invested in the [service] provider”.

She claims greater user-control, choice and empowerment needs to form part of aged and community care reforms.

Echoing Ms Hayter’s demand for more choice in the system was a panel of older Australians who have not yet reached the stage of needing care. They addressed conference delegates yesterday (Tuesday, 22 May 2012) to inform service providers about the services they would want to help them age well.

One of those panellists was Kelvin Dickens, who has been heavily involved in service provision in aged care services in Australia. He spoke about his desire to be “listened to” if he was to need care services provided to him.

“I expect to be treated as an individual and to be listened to as the individual that I am when it comes to my care needs.

“I should be treated as an individual and not just as part of a package. There are services I will need that others may not need, and vice versa,” he says.

Aged care activist, Joan Stone, who has lived at a retirement village for the past 20 years, says she would like to be “consulted” about the care given to her.

“I would want to know what it would consist of. One thing I don’t think I could tolerate is someone coming to me and saying you’ve been allocated this aged care package; that would instantly want me to say ‘no, thank you. I’ll do without’.

“I think most older people I know would feel the same way and would want the right to have the ability to pretty well say, ‘this is my life and even though I have to call on somebody to help me live that life, I would like to have as much input as practical so I receive the care which suits my needs,” she says.

Stay tuned for DPS News next week as we reveal more of what older Australians had to say at ACSA’s National Community Care conference this week.

Do you want greater flexibility and more choice when it comes to your future care needs? Share your thoughts by commenting in the box below.