User:Ottre/Domiciliary care in Australia

Domiciliary care in Australia refers to the "direct care", patient-centered environment that support workers have developed to care for the approximately 700,000 Australians who are unable to care for themselves and are eligible for a provider-generated care plan, but desire individual service delivery. Through Carelink centres, support worker takes the existing service plan... According to the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, the national program aims to "enhance the quality of life and independence of people... and to avoid their premature or inappropriate admission to long-term residential care".

Direct care encompasses aids &mdash; care systems such as home help, including shopping, gardening, and home maintenance; a combination of home help and short-term personal care assistance, including transportation, arranging and facilitating training, and social assistance; and long-term personal care assistance, including toileting, bathing, dressing, feeding and assistance with medication &mdash; and ancillary services (support systems such as counselling and therapy) to care for and secure the aged in their own homes.

Service providers by regional hospitals and community day centres in Australia. Falling under the category one funding scheme of both health care and social expenditures, domiciliary care today encompasses a wide range of paramedical, home domestic aids and social workers.


 * portfolios of what? "health/welfare spending"?

The domiciliary care system was set-up in the 1960s. Groups would no longer enter care program, welfare system... Referred patients, many of whom are severely disabled and require consistent assessment, are typically seen to by service teams in consultation with their general practitioners within ..., then assigned part-time helpers and a case manager. Further support...

At the individual level, there has never been a full aged care system...

A full support system was provided during the 1970s when several different Commonwealth community care funds were being paid to state and local governments under a number of specific purpose grants. Since the mid-1980s, the central programmes have been gradually integrated into a single Community Care Programme funded directly by the Commonwealth, and the reach of services is now limited by/reach of aids??

Current developments/Prospects

History

 * "Health care resources" a useful term here?

Historically, care for the aged in Australia has had an unapplied orientation towards the loose concept of family responsibility, with little being done to integrate community support systems.

was considered the reponsibility of relatives and voluntary charitable organizations. Other nations took practically the same approach, rooted in principles of... The Victorian and New South Wales colonial governments began searching for the right legislation the public provision of age pensions. A limited aged pension scheme was begun in 1908, fixed at $52 a year for the "needing and deserving" aged poor. This was actually the first attempt at..., followed by lmost twenty years of discussion, reworking policy and hostels built by foreign aid organizations (making this shit up) which did nought to help the problem.

The proportions of older people living with their families has also fallen considerably over the last 30 years (1951-1981). The improved financial status of the aged also a factor, as well as the fact that the growth of telephony and car ownership (by that time, taken for granted) meant families could (and did) provide a considerable amount of care without co-residence.

Stock of relatives who might provide support diminished over the period, as middle-aged women entered the workforce&mdash;in roles competing with that of dutiful carer to older people, such as ...&mdash; and changing filial responsibilities co-residence of the aged and their children.

The concept of a "retirement age" entered Australian society in the early 1960s. Up until the 1950s... Generation maintaining a separate household. The Australian government has recognised the preference for remaining in low-maintenance retirement village homes through a policy of "ageing in place". Increased funding for services such as help with bathing, meals, laundry and nursing, distinction is further blurred by some retirement villages being co-located with residential aged care facilities.

Health and aged care programs are historically difficult to access in rural Australia.

delegated professional body

Increasing demand for home and community-based services and residential aged care services has seen an increase in the use of health workers with no formal qualifications.

Role of the Commonwealth
Home and Community Care policy. National information system, made up of..., to monitor funding and delivery patterns, services provided and users' profiles.


 * restructuring delivery system
 * primary health care
 * integrated nursing
 * community-based services

Role of the States
The Australian States...

Staffing practices

 * Senior social workers
 * Social workers
 * Occupational therapists
 * Physiotherapists
 * Podiatrists
 * Liaison officers
 * Paramedical aides
 * Handymen
 * Full-time helpers
 * Part-time helpers


 * managed care plans where functional ability and quality of life can addressed with more latitude

domiciliary visits by physicians, home nursing services, provision of apparatus, medical-social services such as domestic helpers, laundry services, provision of meals, etc, public health nursing and sanitation.

Outside demand
Agencies require evaluation. Increasingly demands are being placed on helpers to demonstrate that what they are doing is actually helpful.

Mature nursing science...

There is an overlap between planning and evaluation; often an appraisal study will be carried out to promote better planning. However, studies of consumption specifically undertaken for planning new services or facilities (eg. estimating needed hospital beds) are difficult to quantify...