Pharmacy Daily | Do the elderly take advice?

OLDER Australians who receive community care whilst living in their own home are the least likely to enter permanent care within two years of undergoing an Aged Care Assessment (ACA), according to a new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. ACA’s are undertaken when older Australians want to access certain aged care programs, and they include recommendations on whether the participant should seek care in their own home or in a residential setting. “The care needs of people can vary considerably when they first seek assistance from a government program, and so even at this early stage different people require different services—from limited assistance in a community care program to high-level care in a residential facility,” said AIHW spokesperson Dr Phil Anderson. The report, which examines whether older Australians follow recommendations from ACAs, found that 54% of older Aussies who were recommended to live in low-level residential aged care, who had not used community care or residential respite, were admitted to permanent residential care within six months of the ACA. In comparison 26% of people who lived in low-level residential aged care, and who used both residential respite and community care, accessed permanent residential aged care within six months. “This means that people who did not use community care were more likely to access residential aged care shortly after their Aged Care Assessment,” Anderson said. Researchers also found that around one quarter (or one in six) older Australians who underwent an ACA and were advised to live in low-level residential care did not do so in the two years after their first assessment.

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