More frail or disabled older people are able to receive care at
home and remain living in their own homes for longer, as the
provision of community aged care continues to grow, says a report
released today by the Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare.
The report, Community aged care packages in Australia
2004-05, looks at two Australian Government funded programs
designed to help people stay at home who might otherwise need to
move to residential aged care.
Ms Ann Peut, Head of the Institute's Ageing and Aged Care Unit,
said a small but rapidly growing community aged care program is the
Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH) program.
'The EACH program is designed to provide the equivalent of
high-level residential care to people in the community, while the
larger Community Aged Care Packages (CACPs) are designed to assist
people who would otherwise be eligible for low-level residential
aged care,' Ms Peut said.
The number of EACH packages available at 30 June 2005 was 1,673.
This was almost double the number available twelve months
previously. The number of CACPs rose from 29,063 to 30,973 over the
same twelve-month period.
'These increases mean that the combined number of CACPs and EACH
packages rose to 17.2 places for every 1,000 people aged 70 years
and over, compared to 16.1 a year earlier', Ms Peut explained.
'The report shows that a high proportion of EACH recipients
lived with family (71%), probably reflecting the importance of
family care arrangements in supporting a high-care recipient at
home. Only 39% of CACP recipients lived with family, while 49%
lived alone,' Ms Peut said.
'The main known reason people left a CACP was to enter
residential aged care (49%). Deaths accounted for 19% and a further
6% were people who left the program when they were admitted to
hospital.' she said.
Similarly EACH recipients mostly leave the program to enter
residential aged care (43%), but deaths account for a higher
proportion of separations (36% for EACH compared with 19% for
CACP). Ten percent of EACH recipients leave the program to go to
hospital.
At 30 June 2005, there were 973 CACP mainstream service outlets
with 56% of outlets operated by the religious or charitable sector.
There were 105 EACH services,, predominately operating in major
cities and inner regional areas.
30 June 2006
Further information: Ms Ann Peut, AIHW, mob.
0419 296 053 or tel. 02 6244 1108
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of the Community aged care
packages in Australia 2004-05 report.