Tas HACC funding
Frail older Tasmanians and their carers will benefit from a funding boost to the Home and Community Care Program (HACC) this year with an extra $4.094 million – bringing the total HACC funding to $49.812 million.
New growth funding has been allocated to 20 Tasmanian Home and Community Care organisations.
The services to be provided include: domestic assistance, personal care, social support, respite, home modifications and support for volunteers and carers have received additional funds.
The increased funding represents an 8.95% increase from 2007-08 and has been allocated to increase funding to those service types that have been identified as major priorities.
Among those organisations provided with additional funding are:
• Alzheimer’s Australia Tasmania, to receive $141,000 to set up an assessment, education, counselling and social support service in North Western Tasmanian for people who have dementia;
• Advocacy Tasmania , to receive $200,000 to expand an existing program – Rights of People with Dementia – to cover North and North Western Tasmania;
• Anglicare – to receive an extra $300,000 to provide about 8,950 extra hours of domestic assistance across Tasmania;
• South Eastern Community Care to receive $150,000 to provide about 4,150 hours of personal care and domestic assistance in southern Tasmania; and
• a number of other organisations have been allocated a total of $355,000 to provide more than 8,650 hours of domestic assistance across Tasmania.
In addition to the significant increase in recurrent funding, a number of one-off projects totalling $1.387 million have been funded.
Included among these is funding to develop and deliver a pilot program to provide HACC community sector education in relation to mental illness and disorders.
Funding has also been allocated for the Menzies Centre to undertake a three year research project to develop and evaluate a self-help coping program for dementia care givers.
