New government tool gives snapshot of aged care clients by region

Victoria’s Southern Metro region has the most aged care recipients from a non-English speaking background, while the Kimberley and Katherine regions have the fewest, a new web report from the AIHW released this week shows.

Victoria’s Southern Metro region has the most aged care recipients from a non-English speaking background, while the Kimberley and Katherine regions have the fewest, a new web report from the AIHW released this week shows.

Drawing on data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National Aged Care Data Clearinghouse, the interactive Regional Aged Care Profiles tool presents information in graphs and tables on government-funded aged care places and recipients by aged care planning region (ACPR).

For the year ending 30 June 2015, there were 3,932 aged care recipients born in a non-English speaking country in Victoria’s Southern Metro ACPR compared to three in Western Australia’s Kimberley and the NT’s Katherine ACPRs. This cohort accounted for 28 per cent of aged care recipients in Southern Metro compared to 1.3 per cent in the Kimberley and 2.2 per cent in Katherine.

In the same year, Alice Springs had the most indigenous aged care recipients (258) while Riverland in South Australia had the fewest, at four. Some 38 aged care recipients across 21 planning regions, in all states and territories except Tasmania, identify as both indigenous and from a non-English speaking country, according to the report.

Southern Metro also had the most recipients overall (13,900), the most residential (10,813) and transition (212) clients as well as the most recipients of for-profit aged care services (7,229). Northern Sydney had the highest number of aged care recipients using a not-for-profit service provider (7,696) while Eastern Metro in Victoria had the most home aged care recipients (3,120).

The tool allows you to select information on the number of places and recipients for a particular ACPR by year, from 2006 to 2015, by provider type, program type, age, gender, indigenous status and language of country of birth.

Region snapshot: Western Sydney

Western Sydney non english speaking recipients by provider type2
A snapshot of the Western Sydney Aged Care Planning Region. Source: AIHW

Australian Ageing Agenda examined one region, Western Sydney, in-depth and found the data showed that for-profit providers were increasing their share of home care clients and particularly those from a non-English speaking background.

In the year ending 30 June 2015, there were 7,301 aged care places in the Western Sydney ACPR, made up of 1,925 home care, 5,274 residential and 102 transitional care places. This equated to 103 aged care places – including 74 residential and 27 home care – per 1,000 people aged 70-plus in the region, according to the data.

Not-for-profit providers were dominant in home care holding 87 per cent of places (1,675 packages) compared to for-profit providers (250). However, the for-profit’s share was increasing as the data showed two years previously they held only 6.5 per cent of home care places (102 of 1,569 packages).

The gap was narrower in residential care and had changed little over the same period, with the for-profit sector holding a 42 per cent share in 2015 (2,216 places) up from 41 per cent of places in 2013 (2,046 of 4,962 places).

The report stated a large amount of information was missing on home care recipients for 2013-14 and 2014-15, but the data showed there were 1,686 home care, 4,953 residential and 95 transitional recipients respectively in the Western Sydney ACPR in 2015.

In this region, 37 per cent of the population was from a non-English speaking background, which was higher than NSW state (20.3 per cent) and national (17.1 per cent) figures, and 1.7 per cent was indigenous, which was below the state (2.9 per cent) and national (3 per cent) numbers.

In 2015, there were 654 home care recipients from a non-English speaking background, down from 676 in 2013, and 30 indigenous home care recipients, including one person identifying as both, in each year.

According to the report, aged care recipients from a non-English speaking background using for-profit providers increased from 22 in 2013 to 151 in 2015, while those using not-for-profits fell from 654 to 503 over the same period. Indigenous home care recipients were more likely to be using a not-for-profit provider in 2013 (25 clients) and 2015 (24).

Click to explore the Regional Aged Care Profiles Tool

Want to have your say on this story? Comment below. Send us your news and tip-offs to editorial@australianageingagenda.com.au 

Subscribe to Australian Ageing Agenda magazine

Sign up to AAA newsletters

Tags: aihw, data, operational, planning,

Leave a Reply