$21.9 Million Home Care Boost for Seniors in Victoria
Seniors in Victoria will receive more support to stay in their homes thanks to a $21.9 million boost to the Home and Community Care Program.
View by date:
Previous MinistersPDF printable version of $21.9 Million Home Care Boost for Seniors in Victoria (PDF 197 KB)
Joint Release
The Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing
Minister for Social Inclusion
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Mental Health Reform
The Hon David Davis MP
Victorian Minister for Health and Ageing
1 June 2012Seniors in Victoria will receive more support to stay in their homes thanks to a $21.9 million boost to the Home and Community Care Program.
The funding boost brings the total funding provided by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments to nearly $545 million annually.
The Australian Government is providing more funding, for more services, to more older Australians than ever before.
Mr Butler said the funding would provide domestic assistance, personal care and social support to 275,000 Victorians, helping them complete everyday tasks and retain their independence.
“These are the services that older Australians tell me they need to remain independent in their own homes and communities and close to family and friends,” Mr Butler said.
“With this latest funding boost, Victorians will get an estimated extra 400,000 hours of care to remain living at home and stay connected with their community.”
Mr Davis said the Victorian Coalition Government had contributed $8.8 million to the $21.9 million package.
“This will deliver 66,000 more hours of allied health services such as physiotherapy, podiatry and dietetics, about 34,000 more hours of personal care and an additional 26,000 hours of domestic assistance,” Mr Davis said.
“The package also delivers more than 162,000 additional hours of social support, which includes one-on-one support for seniors and planned activity groups to keep seniors active and healthy and reduce social isolation.”
Funding is being provided to 456 organisations including:
- $2,600,000 to the Royal District Nursing Service Ltd to expand nursing services in Metropolitan Melbourne
- $400,000 to Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association of Victoria Inc to expand the rural hub providing dementia services in Grampians and Barwon regions
- $16,000 to Lorne Community Hospital to establish a dementia planned activity group in Surf Coast
- $101,000 to Australian Croation Community Services, an ethno specific service provider to expand social support services in Casey and Whittlesea
As part of the Living Longer Living Better Aged Care reforms, $75.3 million is being invested to establish a new national Commonwealth Home Support Program which will bring together existing basic home support services. A further $880.1 million is being provided to increase the number of Home Care packages by nearly 40,000 to 100,000.
“By 2050, over 3.5 million Australians will access aged care each year with around 80 per cent of the services delivered in the community. Our aged care reforms and the significant investment we’re making will ensure the system keeps up with the needs and preferences of older people living in Victoria,” Mr Butler said.
For more information contact the Minister’s Office on 02 6277 7280
Help with accessing large documents
When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:
- Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
- Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
- Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file
Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking)
may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is
opening and/or lead to system problems.
Help with accessing PDF documents
To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. A number of PDF readers are available through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Web Guide website.