Ageing and Aged Care

This website presents work relevant to ageing and aged care at the Institute. Most recent reports can be purchased or downloaded through the publications list. Some of the older material referred to may be out-of-print and not available in electronic format. These should be accessible through your library.

Summary information: 

The Institute produces authoritative and comprehensive publications about key health and welfare issues in Australia.

Our biennial reports to Parliament (Australia's Health and Australia's Welfare) summarise information on ageing, aged care services, and related issues. In addition, the publication, Older Australia at a Glance, gives short summaries of issues which are relevant to older people.

Ageing Research Projects

These are projects funded by the Office for an Ageing Australia, aimed at improving the evidence base for promoting healthy ageing. This work includes support for the Ageing Research Online website, a report on longitudinal studies in Australia which are relevant to ageing, and a number of specific research projects relevant to healthy ageing. Of these a bulletin on obesity in older Australians and another on vision problems have been published.

Informal care: 

This refers to the care provided to older people by family and friends which has become increasingly important with the shift away from care in residential aged care to care within the community.

National Aged Care Programs:

Formal care is provided to older people in Australia through a number of government programs. These include residential aged care and community care programs such as: Home and Community Care (HACC); Community Aged Care Packages (CACPs); Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH) Packages; Veteran's Home Care; and assistance provided by Day Therapy Centres (DTCs).  The Ageing and Aged Care Unit produces statistics on many of these programs.

Links between services/programs:

Older Australians may receive assistance from one or more of these programs, and increasingly the AIHW is looking at the movement of people through a range of services and aged care programs, and at the receipt of assistance from more than one program at the same time. Statistical linkage can provide valuable information on the concurrent use of, or movement of care recipients between, different types of services or programs without breaching confidentiality or privacy.

A page on AIHW projects investigating links between services and programs is being developed. Material covered will include information on statistical linkage protocols, privacy protection issues, and results of investigations into the linkage of data. 

Provision of services to specific groups:

Web pages are being developed on the Aging and Aged Care Unit's work which specifically address services to particular groups such as: Indigenous people, culturally diverse people, people living in rural and remote areas, people with a disability, people with dementia, veterans and women. Some of these pages are currently available while others will be added to the website as they are completed.