Aged Care in the New Millennium - Retrospect & Prospect

Book Title: Ageing at Home - Practical Approaches to Community Care

Chapter 1: Aged Care in the New Millennium - Retrospect and Prospect

Overview:

• Elaborates on basic demographic trends in terms of: growing demands and increasing dependency; how the pattern of services has evolved to respond to this demand; how programs have been affected by recent policy changes
• Summary of the evolution of Australia’s aged care system
• Outlines the major changes to the aged care system since 1997
• Answers key questions of how Australia can develop and maintain an appropriate community care system for the aged in the new millennium.

Description:

The past decade in aged care has been one of considerable ferment and challenge in relation to the growing demand on health and social services from an increasingly ageing Australian population, the gradually rising profile of ageing as a national and international social policy issue and the increasingly proactive stance of the aged as a political constituency in their own right.In 1996, in a period of increasing demand, Australia made a philosophical shift in how aged care was to be provided and who would be primarily responsible for providing that care. This chapter elaborates on basic demographic trends in terms of the growing demand and increasing dependency, how the pattern of services has evolved and how key issues remain to be solved and be elaborated in Australia’s aged services

Topics:

• Introduction
• Australia’s ageing - a comparative perspective
• Estimating the need for services
• Manageability of Australia’s ageing population
• Evolution of Australia’s aged care system
• Major changes to the aged care system since 1997
• The National Strategy for an ageing Australia
• How can Australia develop and maintain an appropriate community care system for the aged in the new millennium?
• Who should get community care and how should eligibility be assessed?
• Who should pay for community care and by what means?
• How should community care be organised — in what combination/packages and via what arrangements?
• How can the quality of community care be assured?
• How can consumers participate actively in the process of community care?
• What is the role and what are the limits of family care?
• References
• Further Reading

Speaker / Author:

Elizabeth Ozanne

Bachelor of Arts, Diploma of Social Studies (Melbourne), Master of Arts — Sociology, Master of Social Work, Doctor of Philosophy (University of Michigan) Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Ageing and Long Term Care Research Unit, School of Social Work, The University of Melbourne. Dr Elizabeth Ozanne coordinates the Ageing and Long Term Care Research Unit in the School of Social Work at The University of Melbourne. She has published numerous books, monographs, chapters and articles on aged social policy and various aspects of community care in Australia, including:

• assessment and case management practice
• the psychiatry of late life
• the financing of aged care
• ethical and legal issues in work with the aged
• support networks in later life
• older men’s access to community mental health services
• ageing futures

Recently Elizabeth completed three substantial research projects on disability in late life. At present she is completing a monograph comparing the long-term care systems of five countries, drawing out implications for Australia.

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