The care provided for the aged whilst in their own homes is aged care as well. Aged care is not all about nursing homes. 50% of the picture is home care which has the underlying philosophy 'to keep people living in their own homes for as long as safely possible. A good death is one whereby the person can die at their own home'. The demand for home care packages is astronomical already and its about to become unsustainable-the stupid royal commission by a few "toffs" who have not a clue what happens on the ground has just changed the goal posts to enforce mandatory low waiting list for packages. LOL! Who's going to care for them? We don't have enough PCA's as it is let alone case managers? All of it is purely a tokenistic intellectual politically correct bate fest that only adds more layers to an already rotten onion.
We used to have a brilliant system in home care packages with a centralized wait list system of people ranked according to risk and need- Critical, High, Medium, routine. Providers would pick a client from the top when they had packages available. We now have a hidden waiting list of High or Medium and a RANDOM allocation often to people who don't need it. For example those on level 1's not even using their entire funding then being upgraded to a higher package. Packages are being upgraded like hot cakes and providers are run off their feet doing upgrades then we're expected to also to new admissions. Do you know how long an admission takes to only have that person upgraded a week or 2 later? It's double the freaking work!
All of it changed when a certain government brought in the aged care reforms living stronger and "CDC". It wasn't broke then but it is now and believe me I know as I have been working in aged care through Rudd, Gilliard, Rudd, Howard, Turnbull, Morrison. Every time a government changes, the whole system gets an overhaul we constantly have to start from scratch. But I can assure you it was a 'certain government' who completely balls'd up the entire sector. Packages used be allocated via a "funding round". Providers would need to apply for new packages (the same or an increase to previous year) and prove their worth in the application. Now you have this 'consumer directed care' with people having to choose out a provider. All unspent funds (after a person died or went to permanent care) used to go to the provider and was therefore an asset on the balance sheet. The government overnight then took all that back (sending many broke and even majors on to the brink of bankruptcy). Imagine having a 50 million $ residential facility half built to be only told, "oh by the way, you know that 20 million sitting in the bank? That revenue is finished permanently. In 2020 the latest steal to enforce a halving of admin fees just like that, overnight- another decimation of aged care providers revenue-many/most who are not for profit. Now the new "prank" is that money for services is no longer going to be sent to providers, it will sit with the government and the providers will need to provide the services and "apply" to the government to be reimbursed for the expenses already incurred. Providers then need to jump and do another instant overhaul of the entire organization (some with staff of over 30,000 people).
What I am saying is, too much change, too messy! Bring back the K.I.S.S principle for Gods sakes! Wind back reforms that don't work! All of these layers of "fluff" has been added by those in Canberra too soft to bow down to the 1% complainers when they should have held the line.
