As part of the recent My Aged Care system changes, the Federal Government will start sending ‘readiness’ letters to people who are waiting on the national queue for a Home Care Package. This letter is targeted at those people who have been assessed by the Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) as eligible to receive a home care package, but are waiting for a Home Care Package to become available.
Readiness letters will be sent out around three months before a … Read the rest
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On 5 March 2018, the Australian Government announced funding of an additional $85.6 million over four years for the introduction of new services for carers.
This will provide carers with access to new early intervention supports and services to improve carers well-being and long term outcomes.
The new services form part of the integrated carer support service (ICSS) to be implemented in two stages:
The National Palliative Care Standards (Edition 5) have been updated following consultation with the palliative care community and other stakeholders.
The National Palliative Care Standards (the Standards) clearly articulate and promote a vision for compassionate and appropriate specialist palliative care. The Standards recognise the importance of care that is person-centred and age-appropriate; and which pays particular attention to the needs of people who may be especially vulnerable or at risk.
There is increasing recognition that caring for people who are … Read the rest
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This report was sent to Government on 27 October 2017 and publicly released on 26 March 2018.
The Commission has made recommendations on how to apply increased competition, contestability and informed user choice to the human services that were identified in the first stage study report to improve outcomes for users, and the community as a whole.
This inquiry is about finding ways to put the people who use human services at the heart of service provision. This matters because … Read the rest
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The interim report from the Senate Inquiry into the Effectiveness of the Aged Care Quality Assessment and accreditation framework for protecting residents from abuse and poor practices, and ensuring proper clinical and medical care standards are maintained and practised was released 13 February 2018.
The particular focus of the inquiry was on the Makk and McLeay wards of the Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Facility in South Australia; and the failure of regulatory systems to identify and address serious issues … Read the rest
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The Australian Government Department of Health has engaged the Aged Care Channel to develop an educational program about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People receiving aged care services.
The program uses storytelling and interviews to explain how to:
A public consultation on the Aged Care Workforce Strategy is now open on the Consultation Hub.
The Minister for Aged Care, the Hon Ken Wyatt AM, MP announced an expert taskforce, led by Professor John Pollaers, to develop a wide-ranging workforce strategy for the aged care industry for growing and sustaining the workforce and providing aged care services and support for older people, to meet their care needs in a variety of settings across Australia.… Read the rest
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The Australian Government Department of Health has recently released the Draft Aged Care Quality Standards. The Standards are designed to focus on quality outcomes for consumers rather than provider processes. This will make it easier for consumers, their families, carers and representatives to understand what they can expect from a service.
Organisations will be expected to demonstrate how they work in partnership with consumers (and others the person wishes to involve such as family and friends), for example supporting consumers … Read the rest
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The Aged Care Sector Committee Diversity Sub-group is developing an action plan to address the specific barriers and challenges faced by older people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse groups when accessing aged care.
The action plan will sit under the Aged Care Diversity Framework, launched by the Hon Ken Wyatt, Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Indigenous Health, in December last year.
To inform the action plan, the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia … Read the rest
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The Australian Government Department of Health has taken proactive steps to address instances where home care packages have been withdrawn in error, including:
The majority of known instances of incorrect package withdrawals are expected to be resolved by the end of January 2018 with the department contacting providers directly to resolve enquiries about any … Read the rest
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