That thing you don’t want to think about – and it’s not dying When it comes to preparing for our ‘later’ years, most Australians only have a vague idea rather than a plan, writes Janelle Ward.
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ustralians are overwhelmingly planning on ageing at home – whether that be in a property they own or one they rent.
That was the conclusive result of the YourLifeChoices 2021 Older Australians Insights Survey, which drew more than 7000 responses. And given the frightening findings of the aged care royal commission, who could blame them? Survey participants were asked where they intended to age. More than two-thirds (67 per cent) said at home, 8.3 per cent nominated a retirement community, 7 per cent said residential care and 3.2 per cent said with family.
But what of the complexity of both home and residential services?
‘The government has not put in place any accountability measures to stop the rorting of the system.’ Dr Sarah Russell
Alarmingly, one in five (20.8 per cent) said they didn’t have a plan. It’s almost a ‘head-in-the sand’ view and given YourLifeChoices member feedback, we know a majority of older Australians simply do not want to think about what’s involved when the cracks first appear in their ability to live independently. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made 148 recommendations in its final report, calling for a new system underpinned by a rights-based act, funding based on need and much stronger regulation and transparency. Of course, such recommendations require adequate funding. In the May Federal Budget, the government allocated $17.7 billion to the sector – but over five years – and provided an extra 80,000 home care packages – but over two years. Just 12 months ago, almost 103,000 were waiting for a package. It acknowledged the need for extra staff and said it would spend more than $650 million to grow and upskill the aged care workforce. Staff shortages and movement of staff between aged care centres was a critical factor in the hundreds of deaths in aged care in the first year of the pandemic. 4
A report published in August by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia suggests that even without the minimum staffing standards set down by the royal commission, the nation’s aged care workforce needs to grow by an additional 17,000 workers per year between now and 2030.
Earlier this year, Peter Norden, the 71-year-old founder of Jesuit Social Services, prison reform advocate and honorary fellow at Deakin University, wrote of his first experience of navigating the aged care system after an operation.
“I’ve been working at a fairly high level – teaching and writing and research – and I couldn’t understand what it was all about,” Dr Norden wrote in The Age. “When I started trying to change providers, there were so many barriers and hoops to jump through that you almost felt it was a waste of time; you make so many damn phone calls. “I found it bureaucratic, complex and difficult to feel any sense of control or that I was a partner in this.” Dr Norden is a member of the lobby group Aged Care Reform Now, created to give older Australians and their families a voice in the movement to change aged care. Its mission is to ensure the recommendations of the royal commission translate into action. “It seems to me it’s not just a shortage of money, it’s a system that needs to be reformed,” Dr Norden says. “People who are not at a super-advanced stage like myself, whose brains still mostly operate okay, want to be able to use their own judgement to make choices, and to reallocate services as their needs change, not to be on a waiting list for a year or two.”
YourLifeChoices Retirement Affordability Index™ November 2021
