This article discusses Government’s failure to meet targets for removing younger people from aged care
In 2019, the Australian government committed to removing all individuals under 65 from residential aged care facilities by 2025. Recent data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) indicates that with only six months left, this target is unlikely to be achieved.
Recommended Solution: Strengthening alternative housing and support options
Key Takeaways
The government’s investment of A$50 million aimed to phase out younger people from aged care by 2025. Despite efforts, 1,470 individuals under 65 were still in aged care by the end of 2023. Proposed legislation aims to restrict younger admissions to aged care, further limiting new entrants.
Benefits and Value
The failure to meet these targets underscores the need for comprehensive reform to improve housing and support options for younger people with disabilities. This reform not only respects individual autonomy and quality of life but also ensures sustainability and efficiency within the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
According to recent reports, the Australian Government is not on track to meet its targets for removing all younger people with disabilities from residential aged care by 2025, despite setting this goal in 2019. The government has faced significant challenges in transitioning younger people into age-appropriate housing like Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), with issues including a shortage of SDA housing supply, complex funding arrangements, and the need for better coordination between the health, disability and aged care sectors.
Government Targets and Status
- As of June 2022, there were 2,934 people under the age of 65 living in residential aged care, a 24.7% decrease from the previous year but still far from the government’s goal of having no younger people in aged care by 2025. The government had set intermediate targets to stop younger people from entering aged care by 2022 and to remove those under 45 by the same year, but these targets have not been met.
- In 2017-18, there were over 6,000 younger people in residential aged care, which dropped to 4,860 by June 2020.At the end of 2022, 48 people under 45 remained in residential aged care, despite the target to have none by that time.
NDIS and SDA Role in Transitioning Youth from Aged Care
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plays a crucial role in supporting younger people with disabilities to transition out of aged care by providing funding for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA). SDA housing is designed for people with very high support needs, but the availability of SDA has not kept pace with demand.The NDIS Review highlighted the need for better coordination between the NDIS, health, and aged care systems to achieve the government’s targets. As of 2021, there was a significant shortage of SDA housing, with around 28,000 SDA places needed but only 8,000 available.
Challenges in Transitioning to SDA
Several factors contribute to the difficulty in transitioning younger people from aged care to SDA housing:
- The complex needs of younger people in aged care often require coordination across health, disability, and housing sectors.
- Navigating the housing services system is challenging for people with disabilities and their families due to the dominance of large providers and complex funding arrangements.
- Many younger people currently live in older “legacy” properties that are not well-suited to their needs, but the pace of new SDA builds has been slow, with only 3,800 new properties made so far.
- Smaller developers face difficulties in accessing finance for SDA projects due to the specialized nature of the construction and the need for NDIS certification.
Recent Measures and Future Directions
The government has announced additional measures in the 2023-24 budget to address the challenges in transitioning younger people out of aged care, including $3.6 million for targeted education and training for healthcare professionals to support the transition process and $2.4 million to establish a national function for consistent decision-making on the eligibility of younger people entering aged care.In addition, $1.3 million made available for an independent evaluation of past and current measures to inform future initiatives.Continued efforts to improve housing availability, enhance system coordination, and provide targeted support are essential to achieving the goal of removing all younger people from aged care by 2025. The NDIS and SDA housing remain critical components of this strategy, but more needs to be done to ensure that younger people with disabilities have access to age-appropriate accommodation and support.
