Productivity commission public inquiry into caring for older Australians

With an ageing population the health and aged care sector will face extraordinary challenges with increased service demand. The Australian Government has asked the Productivity Commission to develop detailed options for redesigning Australia’s aged care system.

Alzheimer’s Australia’s submission to the Productivity Commission included the following priority areas for consideration by the Commission:

• Reforms to the aged care system to create a high quality, equitable and sustainable system that provides greater consumer choice and high quality community and residential care.
• A focus on improving the quality of dementia care including providing adequate support for individuals with behavioural symptoms of dementia and their carers, adequate funding for community-based dementia care services, training for aged care staff, high quality end of life care and providing services to special groups with dementia such as individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Indigenous and rural populations.
• Improvement in the health outcomes for people with dementia through making the primary care and acute care systems more responsive to the needs of people with dementia.
• Investment in research into the cause and prevention of dementia and dementia risk reduction programs.
• A plan to build on the work accomplished by the Dementia Initiative to ensure a coordinated approach to addressing the dementia epidemic.

Alzheimer’s Australia's supplementary submission to the Productivity Commission
October

Alzheimer’s Australia's initial submission to the Productivity Commission
July 2010

For more information on the Inquiry into Caring for Older Australians please visit the Productivity Commission website.