Put your money where your mouth is

With the Rudd Government’s first budget less than a week away, aged care industry leaders have told the Federal Government that it needs to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to community care.

The Aged Care Industry Council (ACIC) has urged the government to match its “verbal support” for community care with  $187.5 million in extra funding. 

ACIC spokesperson and Aged and Community Services Australia CEO, Greg Mundy said community care services are being spread “more and more thinly”.

“The ageing of our population, older people’s preference to remain in their own homes to receive care and a failure of Government subsidies to keep pace with increasing costs are all making it harder to maintain the level of service that older people need, and deserve,” he said.

The council wants the government to provide an immediate funding boost to the community aged care package (CACP) program, amounting to $83.5 million in the first twelve months.

Mr Mundy said the Home and Community Care program also required a 20 per cent funding increase – or an additional $104 million – in order to meet current demand.

“It’s all very well to talk about older people’s preferences and the fact that many prefer to remain at home. Failing to resource community care properly is a recipe for neglect,” said Mr Mundy.