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Australia: Home Care Programs for Elderly 'in crisis'
By David Wroe, The Age June 13, 2003 Australia - Rampant bureaucracy and buck-passing meant Australia's home care programs for the elderly were in dire need of an overhaul, aged care groups said yesterday. Experts
and advocates at a community care summit in Canberra agreed that caring
for the elderly in their homes needed to be simplified, and the $1.7
billion a year in funding should be bumped up to more than $2 billion. They
also slammed the buck-passing between the Commonwealth and the states, who
share responsibility for community care, and argued the system would be
better run by one or the other. Baillieu
Myer, patron of the Myer Foundation's 2020 Vision for Aged Care in
Australia and son of department store founder Sidney Myer, strongly
advocated giving full responsibility to the states. "Long
term, there is a very good case that the work should be done by the states
. . . under guidelines established by the Commonwealth," he said.
Commonwealth guidelines would ensure equity across the states. Mr
Myer said the split between the Commonwealth and the states increased
bureaucracy and the duplication of services. Victoria
has 33 community care services - 16 federal and 17 state. Mr
Baillieu put governments on notice, saying the proportion of voters over
65 was increasing. "I think you'll find all parties . . . giving more
time to this issue," he said. Federal
Minister for Ageing Kevin Andrews said the Government had reformed aged
care and doubled funding, but backed further reforms. Victorian Minister
for Ageing Gavin Jennings said the state would be happy to take
responsibility for community care. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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