$537m response to aged care royal commission
An extra 10,000 home care packages will be made available for older Australians from this Sunday in an urgent $537 million response to the aged care royal commission’s damning findings.
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- Aged Care Royal Commission releases scathing interim report
- Royal commission to shine light on secrecy of abuse in aged care
- Fight for justice left Oakden whistleblowers reeling
- The Reluctant Whistleblower: Barbara Spriggs says she’s do it again
Older Australians will benefit from an extra 10,000 home care packages available from this Sunday, in a $537 million response to the aged care royal commission’s damning findings.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled the plan yesterday, which will launch new safeguards from January 1 to crackdown on the overuse of chemical restraints.
It comes three weeks after the royal commission’s scathing interim report laid bare a “shocking tale of neglect”.
Commissioners called for immediate action to stop the “over-reliance” on chemical restraints after experts warned one in five residents were prescribed antipsychotics or minor tranquillisers, but only 10 per cent of cases actually needed them. Doctors will be forced to seek extra approvals if they want to prescribe repeat courses of the antipsychotic drug risperidone beyond the initial 12 week period.
Targeted letters will be sent to doctors or homes with high records for prescriptions about the ‘appropriate use’ of antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, a tranquilliser. Extra training will also be provided to help aged care workers care for residents with dementia.
New education materials will also be made available, while regulations will be updated to make it clear that restraints should be used as a last resort. Ten thousand extra home care packages will be rolled out from December 1, with a focus on high-level care.
National Seniors Australia spokesman Ian Henschke said the extra places were welcome but “much more” was needed urgently to fix the waitlist of more than 110,000 Australians.
“The Royal Commission heard evidence back in March that estimated $2.5 billion was needed, so this is only about one fifth,” he said.
The government will also ramp up efforts to rehome thousands of young people languishing in aged care after the report called for an “immediate” response to the problem. New targets have been set to ensure no one under age 45 us living in aged care facilities by 2022, and no one under the age of 65 by 2025.
Oakden whistleblower Barbara Spriggs welcomed the action, saying all of the steps were in the right direction.
“Such big issues can only be resolved with time, money and training, in the now, and ongoing action plan,” she said.
“The proof will be in the pudding. So much time is spent talking about what we’re going to be doing and not actually doing stuff.”
Stewart Johnson said the government deserved an “F” mark for the home care announcement because “they don’t need interim reports” to know the waiting list was in a critical state.
He welcomed dementia training for aged care workers but raised concerns about the phrase “chemical restraint”, saying it was “criminal” for staff to continue drugging people.
Council on the Ageing boss, Ian Yates said it was regrettable the government had not yet developed a plan to reduce home care wait times to a maximum of 60 days but he welcomed a commitment to create a single body to assess home care applications.
Leading Aged Services Australia chief executive Sean Rooney called for immediate funding relief for the residential care sector, warning 197 providers were under financial distress.
“We believe up to 50,000 older Australians at sites across the country are at risk because of the financial situation that many providers are facing.”
Opposition seniors spokeswoman, Julie Collins, said the question for the Prime Minister and his government is “will older Australians desperately waiting for care get their home package any sooner?”
Mr Morrison stressed it was only an initial response to the interim report and flagged more changes would be made after next year’s budget and when the royal commission handed down its final report in November 2020.