Indigenous plan continues to develop

Two new overnight Indigenous aged care services will be established in remote Northern Territory communities.

The Commonwealth Government has announced plans to develop an overnight aged care service at Mutitjulu, the remote Aboriginal community near Uluru.

The government has given in-principle for the development of an eight-bed, 24-hour flexible residential care service within the community.

It will also provide $1 million to Frontier Services to construct overnight staff accommodation at Mutitjulu to help retain staff.

The announcement follows a visit from the Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot to the community last month.

At the time, some of the community’s female elders told the minister of the community’s need for overnight care.

“We will work with Indigenous communities to improve their facilities and care. I have seen very remote indigenous aged care services first hand – and they need to be improved,” Mrs Elliot.

The government will also provide $800,000 to the MacDonnell Shire Council to provide a similar overnight staff accommodation building at the Docker River Flexible Aged Care Service.

The investigation into an unfortunate fatality at the Docker River site in June last year prompted the government’s $46 million Indigenous Aged Care Plan.

The plan includes a number of other measures, such as site visits to all 20 flexible aged care services to evaluate quality and risk and a general building and equipment works program for Indigenous-specific aged care services.

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