Plan Urgently Needed For Ageing Population

With the budget approaching, the Government urgently needs to start thinking smart about the future of aged care, says a national home care agency. New Zealand is experiencing rapid and prolonged growth in the elderly population, a situation which is putting pressure on health and long-term care budgets.

Miranda Smith Homecare managing director Miranda Smith says a comprehensive plan is needed to tackle the problem, and that includes ramping up support for the non-paid carers whose work saves the country huge amounts of money.

The NZ Carers Alliance of 45 national not for profits is also lobbying the Government for greater support. Meanwhile, an Auditor-General report released last year on home-based care talked about how effective home-based support services could delay or avoid a person’s admission to a rest home, reducing the cost of their care to a fraction of what it would otherwise be.

It also says elderly generally prefer to live at home, even when restricted by age and affected by disabilities. While some of the spotlight was on dementia care in last year’s budget, and a provision was made for extra dementia beds, continuing down that path is not a long term solution, Ms Smith says.

She says elderly should be able to expect state assistance, but there will be an increased requirement for individuals and families to ensure they do all they can to provide for themselves in their twilight years.

“People should be able to expect a basic level of state care, but it is becoming a reality that there is only so much taxpayer money to go around, and some of the financial burden has to fall on the individuals.” Ms Smith says, however, there needs to be more support from governments for the people who make huge sacrifices to look after ageing family members, in some instances putting their own health at risk.

“These people are saving the country huge amounts of money, and to keep encouraging them, their efforts must be rewarded - and health maintained - through more access to government-funded respite care.” The NZ Carers Alliance of 45 national not for profits is lobbying for greater support for the country’s 420,000-plus family carers at www.wecare.org.nz

The alliance is asking Prime Minister John Key to take an interest on the role and needs of family carers.

Auditor-General manager Gary Emery recently told a Parliamentary select committee that demand for elderly care was increasing, yet there was no obvious plan to deal with it. "There needs to be a collaborative approach between the ministry, the district health boards and providers”, he said.

• Miranda Smith Homecare is New Zealand’s longest running private national homecare agency. www.mshomecare.co.nz

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