The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety returned to its home in Adelaide this week with a two-day workshop on the design of Australia’s future aged care system – and some exciting concepts are being tested.
Among the ideas being put forward from a Consultation Paper released by the Commissioners Lynelle Briggs and Tony Pagone in December are:
Better face-to-face support to access aged care services – including a ‘system navigator’ who would meet with the individual and their family and help to coordinate entry into the system.
Easier access to basic support services – the process to apply for home supports such as cleaning, home maintenance, meals and transport would be streamlined with people able to access supports faster.
Reablement and wellness programs – this would include rehabilitation services to help restore functioning after an illness or accident and help keep people living independently at home as well as respite care to give home carers a break.
Funding packages tied to the individual, not the operator – older people would be able to take their funding with them as they transitioned from lower to higher-level aged care services and be able to direct their packages to supports that matched their individual needs.
More intensive care services being provided in the home and in less institutional-style care settings – this would see more people being able to stay in the family home and in settings that feel more like ‘home’.
These are major changes!
But they would help to solve many of the problems we hear about on our agedcare101 forum – and fulfil Commissioner Briggs’ promise last year to find solutions to improve the last 10 to 15 years of our lives, not just the final few months.
The Royal Commission still has 10 months until it hands in its Final Report on 12 November, but it’s good to know the Commissioners are thinking outside the box – and are preparing to push providers and the Government for change.
If you have a question about aged care or home care, you can post it on our forum here.
Discussion1 Comment
Big probs in SA. 20 yrs as a resident of Lifestyle SA. The Min. Of Health & W prohibits any Policing of the RVAct. If there’s a prob. He will only look to The Office . A. Well. To NEGOTIATE a suitable outcome for him not us. Ask how many prosecutions against unscrupulous Operators have occurred. Authorised officers and powers are there but not used. This garbage leads any prudent person to clearly suspect that these financial property holder election fundings play a major role to shut us up.
Clearly the Gov. fails to recognise that many retirement village residents are well into there 80s and 90s. We have one at 100. They are vulnerable people unprotected
If their book work was confiscated and audited I shudder to think of the outcome.
Check with Francis Bedford MP Florey for a comment. In my 40 years as a Police Officer I have never experienced such a Comp. we are imprisoned here & cannot leave. HELP