National Respite and Community Care ConferenceRespite Issues in Community Aged Care

23 October 2014

Sue EldertonNational Policy Manager

Carers Australia

About Carers Australia

Carers Australia is the national peak body representing the diversity of Australians who provide unpaid care and support to family members and friends with a:

disability chronic condition mental illness or disorder drug or alcohol problem terminal illness or who are frail aged.

Carers Australia has associations in all states and territories which provide:

information and referral Counselling respite education and training and a host of other

supports.

Respite – a knotty problem

Beset with issues about who “owns” the respite

This, in turn, contributes to:

Disconnect between aged care and disability care

The boxing of respite options into disparate programs to serve the care recipient

Ownership issues continue to dog carers access to respite under aged care reform

Home Care Packages

Respite care continues to come out of the package of the person being cared for

Carers reluctant to cut into the supports for the person they care for

CHSP clients will get respite priority

CHSP

Respite continues to be “owned” by the direct CHSP client

Respite will become more expensive - co-contribution to move from current national average of around 5% cent collection to 15% per cent nationally by 2017-18 subject to means testing.

Will only deliver basic-level services to older people living in the community and their carers

Getting caught between aged and disability care

CHSP respite

Limitation of 68 days + special circumstances

Co-contributions to cost of respite required in most cases

Respite part of the care recipient’s package

NDIS respite

Respite entitlementslayered: • between 7•and 28 days p.a.•+ (special circumstances

Co-contribution to costs unclear

Access depends on planner’s perception of need within context of full package

Respite part of participant’s package

Sandwich carers

Carers of people

not eligible for either ?

CA recommendations on CHSP design

The CHSP to consider carers as partners in care as well as individuals with their own needs.

Carers have access to the suite of respite care services within the CHSP as well as the residential respite care program based on their own assessed need in cases where the person they care for receives a Home Care Package that is fully expended on meeting their needs.

Carers also need access to access to restorative care through CHSP allied health services

CA recommendations on CHSP design

Face-to-face assessment should always be made available when a care relationship has been identified through the screening process. Domains of assessment to include:

Caring tasks and responsibilities Other responsibilities – employment, study, care for others Carers physical and emotion health status Sustainability of the care relationship Access to other supports Carer goals

CA recommendations on CHSP design

A carer of an aged person (whatever the carers’ age) should be eligible for CHSP even where the eligible person they care for is not receiving a service themselves.

Carer support services other than respite care should not be part of the CHSP, just as they are not part of the NDIS.

If we could start from scratch, what would we have preferred?

Carer supports should be available from their own bucket of funding PROVIDING adequately funded

Carers get access to personal budgets to purchase the services they are assessed as needing – including the respite options they want

BUT

How to resolve the “ownership” problem?