Opinion Articles

*Aged Care: Who'll Care About You?
By Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy is the Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Care of the Aged (CCA), one of the largest providers of aged care services in the Hunter Region of NSW. CCA is a ministry of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle dedicated to caring for the elderly citizens in our community. CCA services provide a range of lifestyle choices including independent living, assisted living within hostels and villages, and nursing home care. Community services are also provided to growing numbers of older people who choose to stay in their own homes.

Imagine this scenario. A friend of yours has been caring for her 65 year old husband at home for the last six years. Four years ago, her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease. The wife has poor health, and while she has some community and family help, she is the primary carer. She feels out of control and stressed. Her husband is incontinent, wanders, is at times aggressive toward her, and has physically assaulted her on a number of occasions.

The loving relationship the couple have shared for the last 40 years is fast becoming a thing of the past as the carer fights just to get through each day. Doctors, family and friends tell her it is time to "place her husband into a residential care facility". Now, added to her grief at the loss of their relationship, her husband as a partner, shared retirement, and other losses, she has to "put him away". The guilt, shame and burden of such a decision is exacerbated by the fact that the waiting lists are long, and the choice of facility is likely to be far from her residence - all adds to her very heavy burden of grief. "No one will be able to care for him the way I have", she says.

This is not an imagined or exaggerated scenario. It's a reality for many in our communities. And it may have happened to you already or perhaps will happen to you or someone close to you in the near future.

On Tuesday 6th April 2004 the staff and volunteers in aged care services across Australia participated in a National Day of Action to highlight the funding crisis in the aged and community care sectors. The nation's aged care providers have identified the immediate need for an injection of funding to ensure our older Australians receive the quality of care they expect from nursing homes, hostels and community services.

One of the major reasons why aged care providers have increasingly come under pressure is because the formula used by the Commonwealth Government each year to determine funding (called the Commonwealth Own Purpose Outlays Index or COPO Index) does not take into account changes in staffing, insurances, workers' compensation rates and other costs associated with aged care.

This means that for many years the cost of providing aged care services has been rising faster than the income that providers receive. In recent years some not for profit providers have had to make the decision to leave the aged care sector because it's no longer financially viable to operate within it.

As providers of aged care, the Government has asked us to be better financial managers and to look for productivity gains. While this is a reasonable ask, especially since the Government contributes the majority of funding, for some time now, many providers haven't had the necessary surpluses to absorb any additional costs.

So, on behalf of the community and especially for the many older Australians who need or will need aged care services, the aged care providers are asking for:

• the yearly funding increase (the COPO formula) to be replaced with a different method that accurately reflects the real costs of staffing and other costs;
• an immediate injection of at least $10 per day, per bed to restore viability;
• recognition that community care funding which is subject to the same financial pressures and needs be increased by 10% to ensure the continued viability of these services.

There are other structural issues that aged care providers believe will be highlighted in the Commonwealth Government's soon to be released Pricing Review Report, chaired by Professor Warren Hogan.

One of the major issues includes a need to provide alternative capital funding options for the building of new facilities that meet Government requirements and consumer expectations. This is an issue particularly, but not only, for high care facilities such as nursing homes.

I urge the community to become involved in this issue and to lobby our politicians about the requirements of our frail elderly. The need for sustainable funding and access to aged care services is urgent and we require the Federal Government to take decisive action in the May Federal Budget.

I invite you to visit any of Catholic Care of the Aged's nine residential facilities within the Hunter and Manning regions to sign a petition that supports the matters already highlighted. I am sure other local aged care providers would find your support encouraging or you may prefer to contact your local Member of Parliament.

The aged care staff at Catholic Care of the Aged are a hard-working group of people who give a great deal of love and compassion in their care of our frail and elderly community members. I am proud of their efforts but am also aware of the excellent care given by many other providers. Aged care employees undertake their work in an environment that is starved of funding and where their own wages are much lower than the levels paid in facilities like public hospitals.

Please support our campaign to address the issues impacting on the wellbeing and welfare of some of our sickest and frailest Australians. If we, as a society, are committed to maintaining quality standards in aged care, then we need to ensure the system is funded to meet those costs.

*This article was published in The Newcastle Herald, 9th April 2004