Palliative care source of support

The following article was first published in the Nov-Dec 2015 issue of Australian Ageing Agenda magazine.

It's critical that residential aged care is equipped to care for the old and dying, but insufficient resources and workforce issues add to the challenge, writes Deborah Parker.

Australia, like many developed countries, has an ageing population that is becoming increasingly dependent on formalised systems of care. A greater number older Australians are using aged care services; in 2010-11, 75 per cent of all people dying had used an aged care service in their last year of life compared to 70 percent in 2003-04.

Residential caged care facilities provide 24-hour care for 7.8 per cent of the Australian population aged 65 and over, with 83 per cent requiring high level care. Time from admission to death for these individuals can be brief, with 35 per cent of people dying within the first year of admission, and of these, 24 per cent occurring within six months of admission, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data.

Therefore, it is critical that staff working in residential aged care have adequate training and support to care for the old and dying.

Read the full article here PDF, 447.47 KB.

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December 2015