Brave new world of aged support but risks remain for elderly

IMAGINE entering into an agreement for paid services where you have the capability to specify exactly what you want. Most of us don’t have to imagine, it happens in almost every part of our lives. However this is the revolutionary change that is taking place in the aged care sector.

Tasmania has Australia’s fastest ageing population. So let’s be real about this, it’s not a secret, nor a surprise. In September last year, leading Australian demographer Bernard Salt visited Tasmania with a warning for all aged care service providers, to prepare for the “tsunami” of Baby Boomers entering the sector within the next 10 years.

While this warning served as a timely reminder for all service providers to be prepared for the future, the threat is in fact, knocking on our door now.

With the rollout of Consumer Directed Care (CDC) on February 27, it is imperative consumers inform themselves about this unprecedented change in how they’ll receive their future care.

The ideology of the changes is about putting control back in the hands of the person buying the service, a move that should be celebrated, not feared. The changes also mean those Tasmanians who have not been able to gain access to home care previously now have a chance to be assessed and go on a national waiting list. It means that, as of last month, home care packages previously managed and delivered through the service provider are now controlled by the consumer.

This is an enormous leap in the right direction for the consumer, who now holds the power to choose, and rightfully so. However, on the flipside, it also means instead of packages being tendered and delivered via organisations on a state-by-state basis from the Federal Government depending on need, all packages are now provided from a nationwide pool of those in need.

This brings about another big change: when a package is handed back it will now go back into the national pool where individuals will be assessed largely based on their need and the time they have been waiting on a national scale.

If our elders are not supported to ask for services when they are needed, the unmet need in our community will go unaddressed, which often results in early admission to residential aged care or hospital, neither option we as a community want.

Without speaking up for our elders we risk packages being unavailable in Tasmania as the changes mean that when a Tasmanian resident leaves a package, the empty package goes to the national waiting list, with no safety net for Tasmanians.

We now need to respond to this ageing population crisis while tackling the declining workforce, and how we do this both as a community and as aged care providers is the testament to how we value our elders.

Although the issue of whose responsibility ageing really is has become a game of political football, it’s important to remember the fundamentals of how we care for our loved ones.

So now it is time for us to take the baton of responsibility that they passed on to us, to amplify their voice, proclaiming their rights and access to support as they age.

We need to ask not only what they need but what they want. We need to open up communications and engage with them to find out how we can assist, and also empower them to live their lives as they please.

For this to happen, the debate around whose jurisdiction “ageing” falls into needs to stop while conversations, meaningful solutions and actions to champion the need to invest in our elders need to start.

We also need to find ways to attract skilled workers to choose Tasmania as a preferred state of employment.

The importance here is placed on the value of stopping and connecting with an elder, hearing their story, finding out what’s important to them, how they came to the service and how we can help.

This means talking to the person in front of you and not relying on reports or data provided by third or fourth parties, and asking questions with courtesy, respect, curiosity and genuine empathy.

Last month’s changes mean that if an older person is receiving a home care package, nothing changes — unless they are unhappy with their provider, in which case they have the right to shop around and find one that suits them better.

It is important not to mistake all providers as the same. It is reasonable for businesses to run at a profit so they can continue to operate and employ trained and supported staff caring for your loved one but make sure you understand the costs associated with care.

It is important to speak up about fairness in our system for our elders.