The $229 million Federal Budget commitment to improve dementia care addresses many of the elements needed to support aged care recipients, dementia advocates tell Australian Ageing Agenda.
Overall measures to improve dementia care in the $18 billion aged care package Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced on Tuesday evening and respond to 40 recommendations of the aged care royal commission.
Funding in the budget goes towards more support at dementia diagnosis, assessment and care planning, dementia referral pathways, improving connections between services to support access.
It also contributes to reforming residential aged care design and expanding carer education and respite care to support 3,200 families caring for a person with dementia.
Specific funding measures include:
- $7.3 million for additional resources to build dementia care capacity in residential aged care
- $67.5 million for the Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service and the Severe Behaviour Response Teams to reduce reliance on restraints
- $60.1 million to boost respite care recipients through respite care plans for people with dementia and training for residential care staff to put respite care and activity plans into action for people with dementia.
Associate Professor Colm Cunningham, who is director of The Dementia Centre at HammondCare, said he was delighted to see the extent of the dementia-related measures in the budget including those for respite care.
“I was very pleased to see just how many elements of the journey and the pathway they refer to in the budget for people with dementia. I thought it was pretty comprehensive,” Associate Professor Cunningham told AAA.
The funding for the federally-funded DBMAS and SBRT programs aim to support an additional 13,000 referrals to these services each year.
The programs are operated by Dementia Support Australia, which is led by The Dementia Centre, as part of a three-tier on-demand national service to support the care of people experiencing Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia.
“It’s important that we continue to have services available for when dementia is more complex. So programs like the DBMAS and SBRT are really important in that as part that range of services that should be available to support the frontline staff,” he said.
He said the funding will lead to more skilled workers across the country.
Dementia Australia CEO Maree McCabe commended the government for its commitment to dementia.
“This record investment will provide the impetus for systemic change required in the aged care industry,” Ms McCabe told AAA.
“In addition to a number of dementia-specific measures the Government’s significant investment in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is also welcomed,” she said.
Ms McCabe said Dementia Australia will work with government to make the measures a reality.
Other key measures for dementia
The Federal Budget measures support better dementia care through:
- an expansion of the National Dementia Support Program to increase access to carer education early after diagnosis for people caring for a person with dementia using respite
- additional outreach capability for the National Dementia Helpline
- clarifying and simplifying dementia care pathways between the National Dementia Helpline, GPs, memory clinics, My Aged Care, Carer Gateway, and aged care assessment teams
- dementia training for an additional 1,000 general practitioners and GP registrars per year
- providing up to 60 learning networks to support aged care workers in adopting better dementia care practices through the opportunity to share experiences and insights
- aged care regulation on transparency of performance, restraint and dementia-friendly building practices
- a nationally consistent worker screening register and code-of-conduct for all care sector workers including aged care workers.
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What about facilities already caring for severe dementia affected people? The services already delivering quality care, spending in excess of funding received? What of them?
Residential care had a subsidy in 2016/17 that recognised that funding was inadequate for the care provided.. the federal government took that away. I don’t see any funding improvement offered for existing facilities.
Ironically home care does have a high care dementia funding tool. Makes a joke of it all.