Election 2019 – Aged Care
WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE FOR WOMEN?
Women constitute two thirds of both residential aged care and home care users (Department of Health, 2018a). In addition, women make up 57 per cent of all primary carers aged over 65 (ABS, 2016).
There are currently over 128,500 people waiting for home care packages in Australia, with average wait times of between 6 to 9 months (Department of Health, 2018b). Responding to the ongoing growth in demand for home care packages through the piecemeal increases in funded places does not provide women requiring care or providing informal care support with the certainty of support they require. The chronic underfunding of this program and the work force shortages limiting supply need to be addressed in order to ensure that people deemed to need age care services receive those services.
143,000 women aged over 65 are living with a psychological disability (ABS, 2016) representing 63.6 per cent of those aged over 65 with a psychological disability (ABS, 2016).
The rising prevalence of dementia poses a significant challenge to the aged care sector. 52 per cent of aged care residents currently suffer dementia (AIHW, 2012), and this rate is likely to climb. The AIHW projects that by 2020, 400,000 Australians will suffer from dementia, including 242, 800 women (AIHW, 2012).