A re-elected Coalition Government will implement initiatives to allow more people to remain within their communities and among family and friends by being cared for at home.
Choosing to Stay at Home is an $82 million assistance package tailored to the needs of frail, older Australians to enable them to choose to stay at home.
Labor in office had supported institutional models that entrenched dependence and had created only 4,000 Community Aged Care Packages.
In Opposition, Labor has been virtually silent on the issue of care at home, failing to make any reference to community care in their so-called five-point plan.
Since 1997, the Coalition has allocated over 20,000 new Community Aged Care Packages, bringing the total number of packages to more than 25,000.
A re-elected Coalition Government will implement:
An additional 6,000 Community Aged Care Packages at a cost of $68 million over four years which are in addition to those provided for in the forward estimates; a Community Aged Care Package involves the provision of nursing and other services in a person';s home, as an alternative to that person going to a nursing home or hostel.
Partners in Care packages – a new category of package – for retirement village residents at a cost of $14 million for 600 packages over four years in a pilot programme; this programme will involve providing nursing and other services to residents of retirement villages to reduce the need for them to go into a nursing home or hostel.
The Coalition believes in choice. These initiatives are designed to provide more frail Australians with the option of being cared for at home, in familiar surroundings, if that is what they want.
Impact on the forward estimates
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
Total
More Community Aged Care Packages
4.0
6.0
20.0
38.0
68.0 Care Packages in Retirement Villages
2.0
3.5
3.5
5.0
14.0Total
6.0
9.5
23.5
43.0
82.0