[Productivity Commission, REPORT ON GOVERNMENT SERVICES 2020]
Tuesday, 4 February 2020
Regulation, policy oversight and funding of aged care services are predominantly the role of the Australian Government - under three successive Coalition governments needs are not being met
Regulation
and policy oversight of aged care services are predominantly the role
of the Australian Government. It funds residential aged care, home
care and home support, with state, territory and local governments
also funding and/or delivering some of these services directly.
However, most services are delivered by non-government providers such
as private-for-profit, religious and charitable organisations.
Government
subsidises a significant portion of the cost of providing aged care,
but clients and residents are expected to contribute where they can
and may be charged fees and payments by service providers.
In
2018-19
there were est.
3.9 million
people 65 years of age or older in the Australian population.
Of
these
older
people:
236,
213 were in permanent residential care;
64,117
had received respite care;
24,137
had
received
transition
care or short-term
restorative
care;
1,072
national ATSI flexible age care program places were operational;
826,335
were receiving home support; and
131,534
were receiving home care packages.
[Productivity Commission, REPORT ON GOVERNMENT SERVICES 2020]
[Productivity Commission, REPORT ON GOVERNMENT SERVICES 2020]
That is est. 1.2 million older Australians who are receiving some form of government funded care.
Government
recurrent expenditure on aged care services was $20.1 billion in the
2018-19
financial year
or $4,874 per older person, with
the federal government providing 98.2 per cent of the funding.
That
low annual level of expenditure per person may be one of the reasons for
this…..
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
23
January 2020:
The
time it takes for older Australians to enter a nursing home after
being assessed as needing residential care has blown out almost 50
per cent in two years, while waiting times for the highest level of
home care package are 34 months.
The
Productivity Commission reports that the median "elapsed time"
between getting approval from an aged care assessment team (ACAT) and
going to a nursing home was 152 days in 2018-19. This is up from 121
days in 2017-18 and 105 days in 2016-17.
In
New South Wales, the median wait time was 143 days in 2018-19 and 124
days in Victoria. Across Australia, almost 42 per cent of older
people entered a nursing home within three months of getting ACAT
approval. Almost 60 per cent of people entered a nursing home within
nine months.
The
Productivity Commission explained the waiting time was influenced by
the availability of places as well as an older person's "preference
to stay at home for as long as possible". The commission noted
people may choose to try to access formal help at home or more family
help, instead of taking up a nursing home place.
It
said there may also be delays if people sold their family home before
going into residential care.
The
Productivity Commission's annual report on government services
follows the aged care royal commission's recent scathing assessment
of the sector. In its interim report, the royal commission slammed
the aged care system as "sad and shocking", "diminish[ing]
Australia as a nation". It also comes amid pleas from the aged
care sector for $1.3 billion in urgent financial assistance to keep
nursing homes open around the country.
The
Productivity Commission's report, released today, said the median
time between ACAT approval and the offer of a home care package
ranged from seven months for a level one package, to 34 months for a
level four (highest needs) package in 2018-19.
The
commission said there was no comparable data on home care package
"elapsed times" for previous years, due to a change to the
approval process in 2017. Federal government data released before
Christmas showed more than 112,000 people were waiting for home care.
The royal commission singled out the home care wait list for urgent
attention last October, noting "many people die waiting".
According
to the Productivity Commission, in 2018, 84.4 per cent of those who
received a formal aged care service in the home over the previous six
months said they were satisfied with the quality of help they
received. This was down from 89.2 per cent in 2015.
The
report also found that 34 per cent of people over 65 who live at home
and were classified as "in need of assistance" said their
needs were not "fully met"…..
Labels:
#MorrisonGovernmentFAIL,
aged care,
government funding,
health,
safety
Extraordinarily high levels of manganese in town water after rain causing a problem in Tweed Shire
EchoNetDaily, 31 February 2020:
Following recent rains the water supplied to the Tweed Shire catchment has been appearing dirty as a result of the high mineral content that has washed into the river following the long dry spell.
On Wednesday evening Tweed Shire Council stopped pumping water through the reticulation network in a bid to isolate the issue of dirty water to Murwillumbah.
However, this has been unsuccessful and the dirty water has spread to other areas of the shire.
Residents are advised that while the water is unsightly, it is fit for drinking.
However, it should not be used to wash clothes, particularly light-coloured clothes, as it may stain them.
Difficult treatment process
‘The levels of manganese in the weir pool are extraordinarily high,’ manager water and wastewater Anthony Burnham said.
‘These elevated levels of mineral are a result of the recent intense rain washing a lot of organic matter into the waterways, which has then drawn on the dissolved oxygen levels as it decays.
‘The dissolved oxygen level in the weir pool is now very low, exacerbating the minerals issue as the manganese and iron is dissolved and not in its usual particle form, making it harder to remove.’
Council is now drawing water from the top layers of the weir pool, where the water quality is better.
Removing iron and manganese from the water during the treatment process if finicky and requires constant fine-tuning of the treatment process.
‘Our water treatment process was unable to achieve that fine balance yesterday and the discoloured water is now more widespread throughout the reticulated water network,’ Mr Burnham said.....
Labels:
pollution,
Tweed Shire Council,
water
Monday, 3 February 2020
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison & his merry band of cost cutters decided to save $9.2 million a year by cutting off CapTel phones for the profoundly deaf. Luckily this new front in Morrison's ongoing war on the poor & vulnerable was something of a fizzer
"The Commonwealth Government has awarded American company, Concentrix Services a contract to deliver the National Relay Service (NRS). One of the first things Concentrix is contracted to do is to shut down the CapTel handset service on 1 February 2020." [Deaf Forum of Australia, July 2019]
ABC News, 31 January 2020:
Thousands of hearing-impaired Australians could face a return to 1980s technology from today after the Federal Government cancelled a deal to support text-captioning telephones.
Phones with CapTel captioning display words on a large screen in near real time, so deaf and hearing-impaired users can make calls and see the responses.
But in a decision criticised by disability advocates, the phones will not work as of February 1, after the Department of Communications declined to renew the service provider's contract with the National Relay Service (NRS).
A new company won the contract. [Concentrix Services Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of the SYNNEX Corporation]
It will force users to take up alternative options, with many choosing to revert back to what are known as TTY teletypewriter phones — technology first introduced in the 1980s.
For Christine O'Reilly, the CapTel phone changed her life. Ms O'Reilly's hearing has been deteriorating since childhood and now at 62, she is profoundly hearing impaired.
"When I received the CapTel I was so overjoyed I burst into tears," she said.....
Critics say the decision has come down to one thing: money.
The cost of the NRS has blown out in recent years, from $26.3 million in 2015-16, to $31.2 million in 2017-18......
The new NRS contract awarded last June provides for $22 million per year over three years.
Until recently there were more than 3,500 CapTel handsets distributed across Australia. The Department of Communications estimates about 1,000 are still active.
"I certainly acknowledge any transition of this kind is challenging, particularly for older Australians who may not be as familiar with technology,"
Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher said. "We've retained a team of trainers who've been going to meet individually with CapTel users to brief them on their alternatives." .....
It is expected many users will switch to TTY teletypewriter phones, which have a small two-line screen for text above the number pad.
"We're having to go backwards in time, and everyone else can get the latest iPhone," said Dr Alex Harrison, a profoundly deaf veterinarian in Adelaide.
"[I feel] enormously frustrated and discriminated against," he said.
Dr Harrison said the CapTel phone had revolutionised his practice, allowing him to easily make up to 10 calls a day.
Making a call on a TTY phone is much more complicated. "If I want to make a phone call on the TTY, I have to call a 133 number first … and they'll put me through to an operator," he explained.
Once you do that, you may be put on hold or told you are in a queue to make a call.
On January 7, the department acknowledged wait times to get through were unacceptable.
"We understand and acknowledge community disappointment about these issues and can assure you that we are focused on resolving these concerns as a priority," it said.
To address the wait times, the relay service provider Concentrix is currently hiring and training additional staff.
New staff took their first calls just prior to Christmas and more staff will commence during the rest of January.
Other options offered by the Department of Communications are internet-based call captioning and apps designed to work on mobile phones and tablets.
But users said many of the online options were much slower and less user-friendly, requiring them to fill in multiple fields just to initiate a phone call.
"The other options are far too slow. They're primitive," Ms O'Reilly said.
And advocates point out the average age of CapTel phone users is more than 80.
"For an elderly person who's not tech savvy, [these options] can be very intimidating, and often they can't do it. Some of these people are 80 or 90, and they really struggle with that," Dr Harrison said..... [my annotation in red]
"It is indeed a big shock to many Australians, and myself, who rely and need the Captel handset. It seems to me that this section of people with a hearing loss have been sacrificed in a big way so that the TTY can be ‘re-introduced’ and then plunge those who went deaf later in life and whom can speak, right back in the dark ages. It is also a direct insult to the intelligence of the people who worked long and hard to get Captel up and running in Australia. Many of our members have spoken of their dismay and disgust, particularly being isolated and the loss of their independence. In the long run, this move will cost the Australian government much more than it does now." [Deaf Forum of Australia, July 2019]
Thankfully, Captioned Telephone International, the company whose contact the Morrison Government refused to renew and, its president Rob Engelke, have bigger, kinder hearts than either Prime Minister Scott Morrison or Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher, as Mr. Engelke has committed the company to maintaining the CapTel system for those Australians who would otherwise lose their handsets by arranging for the routing of all calls through the company's U.S. captioning centres, while it investigates long-term options based in Australia.
Lots of small tree-dwelling mammals on the NSW North Coast need your help
Nature Conservation Council of NSW
An estimated 800 million animals have died in the recent bushfires.
Donate here to help us provide nest boxes for fire-affected wildlife!
https://chuffed.org/project/help-buil...
There is an urgent need to provide shelter for the thousands of animals that survived the fires. Lots of small tree-dwelling mammals, including sugar gliders, possums and bats, rely on tree hollows for shelter.
Without these hollows, many animals fall prey to feral animals such as cats and foxes.
With this campaign we hope to place nest boxes of various sizes on the North Coast to provide emergency shelter for hundreds of animals affected by the recent fires.
Sunday, 2 February 2020
Fact of the Day
There
are est. 197 countries around the globe & of these Australia is
the 14th highest emitter of greenhouse gases, is still the highest
per capita emitter in
the OECD & is the 5th biggest miner of fossil fuel
carbon.
For a developed country of less than 26 million people Australia has a carbon dioxide monthly average in the vicinity of 405.59 ppm in the atmosphere over its land mass and national waters - which is only 1.81ppm below the global monthly average produced by a world population of 7.8 billion people in 2018.
Due to the amount of forest currently unable to function as high level carbon sinks because of the 2019-20 bushfires, Australia is expected to add an additional 2 per cent to the atmospheric carbon dioxide ppm total in 2020.
[Source: The Australia Institute, July 2019, NOAA
Earth System Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Division, December 2018, UK Met Office, January 2020 & countries-ofthe-world.com]
For a developed country of less than 26 million people Australia has a carbon dioxide monthly average in the vicinity of 405.59 ppm in the atmosphere over its land mass and national waters - which is only 1.81ppm below the global monthly average produced by a world population of 7.8 billion people in 2018.
Due to the amount of forest currently unable to function as high level carbon sinks because of the 2019-20 bushfires, Australia is expected to add an additional 2 per cent to the atmospheric carbon dioxide ppm total in 2020.
Labels:
Australia,
climate change,
greenhouse gases
Saturday, 1 February 2020
Quote of the Week
"If
we nominate Trump, we will be destroyed… and we will deserve it."
[South
Carolina Senator Lindsay
Graham,
quoted
in BBC
News,
4 May 2016]
Labels:
Donald Trump,
Republican Party,
US politics
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)