Ageing on agenda at summit
Three ‘Summiteers’ with an interest in ageing and aged care share their positive experiences from the Prime Minister’s summit with AAA.
While some people saw it as little more than a ‘talkfest’ or publicity stunt, the Australia 2020 Summit had a lot of positives for ageing and aged care, say the three delegates – or ‘Summiteers’ – who spoke to Australian Ageing Agenda.
According to the CEO of ACH Group, Dr Mike Rungie said the forum had a real emphasis on broad participation from all Australians, giving the aged care sector a chance to re-engage with the policy process.
“I was delighted at how often ageing came up as an issue at different times in the summit,” he said.
“I think this kind of forum gives the sector some fantastic opportunities to contribute to policy development in the long term.”
Dr Rungie came to the summit with two main ideas.
“I was really promoting the links between residential aged care and broader health care sector,” he said.
“I was also pushing for the ‘abolition of retirement’ and by that I mean that I wanted to stop the thought process whereby you get to a certain age and you just ‘switch off’.”
“Instead I think it would be better to focus on staying connected because when people do that, their health outcomes are much better.”
And while none of theses ideas made it to the final recommendations, both of both were picked up.
The Health Stream agreed on a national move towards a more integrated health care system for people of all ages, while the Productivity Stream suggested that retired people should stay connected by acting as mentors in the workplace or ‘Golden Gurus’.
Another Summiteer who welcomed the ‘Golden Gurus’ concept was National Seniors’ CEO, Michael O’Neill, who described it as “one of the positives of the summit”.
He also praised the suggestion from the Communities and Families Stream that a National Development Index be established to provide a measure of the nation’s social wellbeing against its economic growth.
“That could be very useful in terms of seeing how seniors are faring and making sure they are not left out,” said O’Neill.
From a health perspective, the ANF’s Federal Secretary, Ged Kearney said the forum provided an opportunity to promote the role of advanced practitioners such as Nurse Practitioners.
“Most of the discussion was about breaking down the regulatory barriers to the PBS so that Nurse Practitioners would be able to prescribe medications and order pathology procedures such as X-rays and blood tests,” she said.
“That kind of thing would greatly increase efficiencies in EDs, aged care and rural and remote communities.”
