Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 7—Income and welfare 269
The Strategy was adopted in response to the
Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act
1992, which makes discrimination on the grounds
of disability unlawful.
Aged care programs of the
Department of Health and
Aged Care
National Strategy for an Ageing
Australia
The Commonwealth Government is developing a
National Strategy for an Ageing Australia. The four
major themes of the National Strategy are:
Healthy Ageing; World Class Care; Attitude,
Lifestyle and Community Support; and
Independence and Self Provision. Following a
consultation process, the National Strategy was
expected to be released in late 2000.
Residential Aged Care Program
The aim of the Residential Aged Care Program is
to provide residential care services for frail
people, 70 years and older.
Recurrent funding is available for each person in a
residential care facility, for example, a nursing
home. The funding depends on the care needs of
the resident. Each facility which provides care is
required to meet specific care standards and,
from 1 January 2001, will need to be accredited by
the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation
Agency (ACSAA) in order to continue to receive
Commonwealth government funding.
Commonwealth government expenditure on
residential aged care in 1999–2000 is shown in
Table 7.14.
Community care programs
Home and Community Care (HACC)
Program
The aim of HACC is to provide basic maintenance
and support services to enable frail older people,
and younger people with disabilities, to remain
living in the community and to prevent
premature admission to residential care. HACC
funded services also assist the carers of these
groups. The types of HACC funded services
available include home maintenance and
modification, as well as home help, food services,
personal care, community nursing, transport and
respite care.
The HACC Program is a joint
Commonwealth/State cost-shared program which
provided $865m nationally for the 1999–2000
financial year to service provider organisations. Of
the total, the Commonwealth contributed $526m
or 60%, the States and Territories the remaining
40%.
While the Commonwealth provides funding for
HACC, the day-to-day administration, priority
setting and approval of project allocations is the
responsibility of the State and Territory
Governments.
Community Care Packages Program
Community Care Packages are funded by the
Commonwealth to provide personal care services
for people in the community with complex needs
who may otherwise require entry to long-term
residential care.
Service providers use a case management
approach to develop and monitor care delivery to
the older person. One of the benefits of the
Community Care Packages Program is its
flexibility in service delivery to meet individual
needs. This flexibility sees people given assistance
with eating meals, using the telephone, personal
and domestic care, and transport.
7.14 COMMONWEALTH EXPENDITURE ON RESIDENTIAL AGED CARE—1999–2000
NSW Vic. Qld SA WA Tas. NT ACT
$m $m $m $m $m $m $m $m $m
Expenditure 1999–2000(a)
Residential care (recurrent) 1 318.5 861.0 594.7 333.9 284.4 102.2 10.6 34.3 3 539.6
Residential care (capital)(b) 7.2 5.3 4.1 3.7 1.0 1.0 2.1 0.0 25.7
(a) Includes expenditure by Department of Health and Aged Care, and Department of Veterans’ Affairs on a cash basis. (b) Total
amount for Australia includes $1.4m of National expenditure which has not been included under individual States and Territories.
Source: Department of Health and Aged Care.
Aust.