On a given day, more than 6,000 younger people are in permanent residential aged care (about 3.3% of people in permanent residential aged care at 30 June 2018). This has changed only slightly over the past decade. In general, the number of admissions each year matches the number of discharges, keeping overall numbers relatively stable.
In addition to those living in permanent residential aged care, on average, more than 2,000 younger people are admitted for respite residential aged care each year (2,600 at 30 June 2018). They typically stay around 1 month.
To try to understand the needs and characteristics of younger people living in residential aged care, the rest of this section uses the AIHW’s Pathways in Aged Care linked dataset to describe the:
- activity limitations of people aged under 65 who first entered residential aged care
- extent to which their main medical condition limits their daily activities.