TODAY’S Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report into the Younger People with Disability in Aged Care Program is a wake up call on the plight of the 3500 young Australians under 60 who live in aged nursing homes.
Summer Foundation CEO Di Winkler said government initiatives to move young people out of nursing homes were not moving fast enough. “The five-year initiative to move 689 people out of nursing homes by July 2011 has so far only found alternative accommodation for 163 people,” Ms Winkler said. “In additional to being slow to develop alternative accommodation, this initiative has not focused enough on the systemic change required to proactively prevent new admissions of young people to aged care facilities,” she said. “The disability and health sectors need to jointly develop and fund services that give people the time and rehabilitation they need to maximise recovery and create pathways from hospital to community living. Ms Winkler said new accommodation options being developed were not keeping up with demand. “These accommodation options will soon be full to capacity, but more than 250 people aged under 50 will likely be admitted to residential aged care facilities each year in Australia,” Ms Winkler said.
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