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Speaker 1: Five double A Nights with Matthew Pantalas. But I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about the fact that on Saturday, yeah, Saturday,

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Speaker 1: there's going to be a new Age Care Act in place,

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Speaker 1: which can well effect. If you're on, for instance, an

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Speaker 1: aged care plan, you will have got a booklet in

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Speaker 1: the mail telling you about the changes. It affects older

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Speaker 1: people right across the board. Let's talk about what some

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Speaker 1: of it means. Doctor Isabelle Meyer is Executive Director of

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Speaker 1: Dementia Training Australia and is on the line Isabel good evening. Hello,

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Speaker 1: all right, thank you, thank you for coming on. So

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Speaker 1: I know my mother, for instance, is on an age

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Speaker 1: care plan and had the booklet delivered and sort of

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Speaker 1: gave it to me and said what does this all mean?

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Speaker 1: And I read and I said, I don't think anything

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Speaker 1: much changes. But why has this act come about? Why

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Speaker 1: are the changes?

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Speaker 2: Well, the changes are actually really significant, Matthew. So, following

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Speaker 2: the Royal Commission into Age Care several years ago, the

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Speaker 2: government has committed to making some really really quite radical

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Speaker 2: changes to the way in which age care supports are

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Speaker 2: funded and arranged across Australia, and as of Saturday, we

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Speaker 2: will be under a new piece of legislation which is

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Speaker 2: a world's first and absolutely extraordinary because it is based

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Speaker 2: on a human rights framework for supporting age care population

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Speaker 2: across Australia. And that is an amazing thing because what

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Speaker 2: it does is re orient everything we do around funding,

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Speaker 2: around the provision of care, around compliance in Australia for

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Speaker 2: the people who provide care, so that the aged care

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Speaker 2: framework that we're all working in as of Saturday is

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Speaker 2: focused on the human rights of everyone, okay, no matter

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Speaker 2: what their age.

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Speaker 1: All right, So the Age Care Act applies to people,

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Speaker 1: is it over a certain age sixty and over seventy

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Speaker 1: and over?

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Speaker 2: It depends a little bit on your circumstances. For Aboriginal

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Speaker 2: Australians the ages are usually a bit earlier, and if

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Speaker 2: you have diseases like dementia then it can apply a

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Speaker 2: bit earlier. But in general that age care provisions apply

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Speaker 2: to anyone of pension age over all.

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Speaker 1: Right, So what changes for people who have been, for instance,

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Speaker 1: on a plan And I suppose that's where you might

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Speaker 1: get the biggest concern or questions come from older people.

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Speaker 1: What fundamentally is going to be different for them?

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Speaker 2: What's going to be different is that the government is

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Speaker 2: providing a more extended range of support for services to

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Speaker 2: keep people at high for much much longer, and it's

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Speaker 2: also providing a different framework for the sort of support

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Speaker 2: that will be offered to people depending on their income,

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Speaker 2: to access residential age care services and supplementary services as

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Speaker 2: they age.

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Speaker 1: Okay, age care and that provision to keep people at

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Speaker 1: home has been an area of concern, and this morning

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Speaker 1: on our Breakfast Show with Rebecca Sharki, federal Independent MP

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Speaker 1: for the seat of Mayo here in South Australia, concerns

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Speaker 1: about the roarting and then people rang in with their

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Speaker 1: stories of relatives or themselves just the incredible routing of

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Speaker 1: being charged hundreds of dollars for someone to come around

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Speaker 1: and the kids thought, for instance, it was food preparation,

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Speaker 1: but all the person was doing was coming around and

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Speaker 1: heating up the meal in the microwave and they were

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Speaker 1: being slugged hundreds of dollars every time. And you think

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Speaker 1: the routing that goes on with with some of these packages,

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Speaker 1: given we the taxpayer are funding this, it needs to stop.

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Speaker 1: It will this stop under the changers?

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Speaker 2: So the Age Care Act provides for a new and

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Speaker 2: really quite transparent framework for age care providers, whether they

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Speaker 2: be residential age care providers or at home providers, to

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Speaker 2: account for the services that they provide and to make

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Speaker 2: sure they represent value of value for money for the customers.

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Speaker 2: So there's a lot more scrutiny, there's a lot more

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Speaker 2: emphasis on compliance and meeting appropriate standards, and there's going

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Speaker 2: to be a lot more rigor around how the system

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Speaker 2: overall is administered. We have a finite bucket of money

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Speaker 2: to direct towards this. We want to make sure that

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Speaker 2: it's distributed as fairly as possible and that people who

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Speaker 2: really need help getting the right help, and that's what

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Speaker 2: the Age Care at changes put in place. It also

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Speaker 2: means that for Dementia Training Australia, which is the organization

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Speaker 2: that I lead, that we're now able to provide training

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Speaker 2: for any age care worker in the sector who will

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Speaker 2: be assisting people if they choose to stay at home

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Speaker 2: and access services, or if they're in residential age care services.

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Speaker 2: We can provide additional training for those people and the

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Speaker 2: government is funding our service to do that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, is the industry ready for the new Act to

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Speaker 1: kick in? Look?

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Speaker 2: I think there are some providers who will face challenges

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Speaker 2: in getting up to speed, and there are others that

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Speaker 2: are way ahead. Like most major transformation exercises, there are

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Speaker 2: those that have embraced the opportunity and are moving forward

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Speaker 2: and doing some really amazing things, and there are others

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Speaker 2: who are going to have a bit more of a

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Speaker 2: challenge about keeping up. For DTA, the number of requests

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Speaker 2: that we've had for training to educate workforces in looking

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Speaker 2: after people with dementia, those increase six hundred and twelve

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Speaker 2: percent in the last twelve months.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so demand is there an over I know from

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Speaker 1: your website over fifty percent of people in care suffered dementia.

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Speaker 1: Is that correct?

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Speaker 2: Around fifty percent of people in residential age care have

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Speaker 2: some form of cognitive impairment. We don't keep great statistics

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Speaker 2: about the number of people still living at home and

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Speaker 2: the orientation of the new legislation because it is focused

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Speaker 2: on human rights and it is focused on people being

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Speaker 2: able to access care with kindness and having more choice

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Speaker 2: means that there is a focus on keeping people at

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Speaker 2: home so much much longer. So the rates of dementia

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Speaker 2: in Australia at the moment, we know that there are

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Speaker 2: about four hundred and forty thousand Australias living with the

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Speaker 2: diagnosis of dementia. We expect that the number of people

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Speaker 2: who actually have dementia in the community isn't that much

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Speaker 2: greater than that, because getting a diagnosis is really hard.

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Speaker 2: So we're hoping that the changes in the legislation will

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Speaker 2: assist people in accessing a diagnosis sooner and getting the

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Speaker 2: support they need, whether they choose to remain at home

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Speaker 2: or whether they choose to access residential age care to

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Speaker 2: support them.

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Speaker 1: All right, is there somewhere people can go? Is that

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Speaker 1: your website or just google the Aged Care Act changes? Perhaps?

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Speaker 2: So, the Department of Health website is probably the best

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Speaker 2: source of information about what's going on with the changes.

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Speaker 2: Our website will direct due to that DTA dot com

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Speaker 2: dot au. You can also find a lot of additional

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Speaker 2: information about what's happening with compliance for residential aide care

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Speaker 2: providers in particular on the Age Care Secting and Quality

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Speaker 2: Commission website as well. But if you start with the

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth Department of Health websites, that is the best place

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Speaker 2: to go as your source of truth.

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Speaker 1: All right, fantastic, Look, here's a question. Why are there

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Speaker 1: wait times up to a year to receive the package. Currently,

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Speaker 1: I imagine that's the demand the waiting list.

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Speaker 2: So there has been I understand some issues with the

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth Government doing the meticulous assessments that are necessary to

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Speaker 2: make sure that people get the right level of assistance

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Speaker 2: they need. I think they're working really hard to shorten

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Speaker 2: those wait times. I don't believe that there are very

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Speaker 2: many people waiting up to a but again, the Commonwealth

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Speaker 2: Department of Health website will direct you to the right

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Speaker 2: people to make sure that your assessment is being expedited

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Speaker 2: as fast as it possibly can.

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Speaker 1: All right, fantastic, appreciate your time today, Isabelle.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, You're more than welcome. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Isabel Meyer, Dementia Training Australia Executive Director on the

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Speaker 1: changes to the Aged Care Act that kicking them on

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Speaker 1: the first of November. So look there it will be

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Speaker 1: a little bit different, I suppose, but if you're going

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Speaker 1: through a care provider, I don't know that you'll notice

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Speaker 1: too much changing