Rural aged-care crisis is just getting worse
By IRENE BLACKBERRY
T’S hard enough finding a suitable residential aged-care facility for your mum, dad or a relative these days.
Spare a thought for those in rural Australia where residential aged- care facilities are closing at an escalating rate, forcing rural families apart as elderly residents are moved hundreds of kilometres away.
In the middle of last year it was revealed 78 per cent of regional aged care homes were running at an operating loss and, across Australia, seven aged-care homes in regional areas closed in the financial year to 2021, with a further more than 160 regional homes across the country are at risk of closure due to dire financial circumstances.
And it’s not just residential facilities that are struggling.
As recently as May, 10 Victorian regional councils announced they would stop offering in-home aged-care services.
We know the aged-care sector is struggling, with Covid, lack of staff and a burdened healthcare system. But look deeper, and rural aged care is doing it much tougher.
A recent study, funded by the Consumer Policy Research Centre, researchers from the John Richards Centre for Ageing Research found older people living in rural areas were at a disadvantage when compared to their metropolitan counterparts.
The report identified issues with aged-care services in rural areas – including long waiting lists, inability to make complaints due to lack of other care options, and difficulty accessing relevant information.
Often there is only one provider in a town or region, meaning older people can’t “shop around”, and may have to endure poor service from their provider, if there is no other option.
Compounding this is a lack of clear, easily accessible information, to help people access the services they need, or make informed choices about their care.
Also, the federal government’s My Aged Care website – which is designed to help people find and access government-funded aged- care services – often left people confused. Many older people reported having to wade through copious amounts of irrelevant information to find what they needed. That’s if they had the skills to search online in the first place.
The report also found some rural primary healthcare workers lacked knowledge of My Aged Care and local aged-care services, which is problematic for older people who lack digital literacy skills or are isolated from family and friends, and therefore rely on healthcare workers for trusted information.
The report came up with some recommendations including: the appointment of an independent “aged care co-ordinator” in rural areas – an advocate with knowledge of the local context, who can provide comprehensive localised, and relevant information; mandatory training and professional development for rural healthcare workers to better promote ageing well, and to support older people to access aged-care services; a review the My Aged Care website to ensure it is fit-for- purpose in a thin rural market; and the development of a targeted awareness-raising campaign highlighting the importance of timely access to community aged care services.
About seven million people – or 28 per cent of the Australian population – live in rural and remote areas.
In part, because of their geographic isolation, they have higher rates of hospitalisations, deaths, injury and also have poorer access to, and use of, primary health care services, than people living in cities.
At June 30, 2020, more people over the age of 65 live in inner regional areas compared to cities and 11 per cent lived of people over 65 live in outer regional and remote and very remote areas combined. That’s a lot of people who will, or are, needing some sort of aged care – and that percentage will increase as our population ages.
We all, if we are lucky, get to age. Whether we age well is, however, a need rather than a certainty.
In rural Australia, it is more a half-hearted hope.
Professor Irene Blackberry is Director of La Trobe University’s John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research
