It’s no secret that Australia’s aged care system has faced significant challenges in recent years. But as we see from reporting on the sector and record investment, it’s not all bad news.
In fact, our sector is on the cusp of positive transformation that will make it a fairer and more equitable aged care system for all Australians.
There has been so much progress this year.
The 2024 Federal Budget included $2.2 billion towards improving aged care in Australia, with a focus on addressing workforce shortages and improving digital infrastructure. We now have the recommendations from the Aged Care Taskforce on how the sector should be funded.
This year also saw the release of the Multicultural Framework Review (which Fronditha Care made a submission to), a once-in-a-generation review that looked closely at the institutional arrangements and legislative and policy settings required to advance multicultural Australia.
This review included a recommendation to establish a dedicated Multicultural Aged Care Unit within the Department of Health and Aged Care to better develop a robust, dynamic approach to culturally sensitive aged care through engagement with multicultural communities.
Australia is built on immigration and our demographic landscape continues to evolve. Migration was up by 73 per cent in the 2023-23 financial year.
According to 2021 Census data, the current population of Australians aged over 65 is nearly 4.5 million. Thirty-five per cent of this population is made up of people who identify as being of diverse ethnic background, and that is not including First Nation’s peoples.
The data speaks for itself. All of this points to the fact that aged care in Australia now has a firm place on our national agenda. Even more, the sector has an exciting opportunity to lean into the Multicultural Framework Review’s recommendation and drive real change for Australia’s ageing diverse populations.
Fronditha Care has embraced this opportunity by launching the Fronditha Care Foundation this September, marking a new chapter focused on the health and wellbeing of older Australians from multicultural backgrounds.
The Foundation aims to answer the following critical questions, alongside partners:
How do we improve the current aged care system so that it meets the needs of diverse Australians?
What health, cultural and workforce interventions can be established to enrich this time of life, when so often it is seen as too medicalised, transactional and not person-centred?
Because when it comes to aged care, the opinions of diverse Australians are more important than ever before, and this will only increase in the coming years.
Australians approaching older age have different expectations of the aged care system. So if we genuinely want to deliver person-centred care that is self-directed and representative of what elders want, we need to address barriers to access and equity and put in place measures that support and enhance culturally appropriate care.
The Fronditha Care Foundation has invested in a range of projects to address some of these challenges, from small-scale pilot programs like supporting the workforce with in-language dementia training, to larger initiatives that define what good culturally appropriate care looks like. They are all aimed at driving positive change within the aged care sector.
The Fronditha Care Foundation has made significant first steps in paving the way for supporting sector colleagues to deliver more inclusive services. It will continue to facilitate the Government’s ambition for a fairer system that includes the right care, support and resources to enable older Australians to live and age well.
