NICK RHEINBERGER, HOST: Well, the overwhelming response from most Australians is that we want to remain in our own homes as long as possible as we age. The Federal Government says their latest Support at Home quarterly data shows wait times for care have continued to come down. That plus a new campaign about reducing your dementia risk have just been reduced- just been launched today by Sam Rae, the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, who joins me now here at ABC Illawarra. Sam Rae, g’day.
SAM RAE, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SENIORS: Good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
HOST: Help me dig into these numbers about home care. What do they mean?
RAE: Well, firstly, you're absolutely right. We know we've got an evolving expectation as a community about what aged care services look like, and older people want to stay in their homes for longer. It's good for them. It's good for our communities as well, Nick. It keeps people close to community. They can continue to contribute across the community with their family, and it's good for the system because it takes pressure off the residential aged care system. Now, what we also know, though, is we've got an ageing population, and so demand for aged care services has never been this high. And that's why our focus is on driving those wait times down so that people can access care in a timely manner.
Now, people who have an urgent classification, they always get their care within a month. What we're now seeing is that wait times are coming down across the board. Now, Nick, the work's not done. There's plenty more to do here. We need to keep driving those wait times down as demand continues to increase. But things are heading in the right direction.
HOST: Well, how have you actually achieved those wait times? What have you done to make that happen?
RAE: Well, there's been a few interventions that we've made along the way. Of course, we brought in our new Support at Home program back in November last year, which was a significant reform. We're rebuilding the aged care system from the ground up here, Nick. These are generational reforms following the Royal Commission under the previous government. So the new Support at Home program came in November. We injected an additional 83,000 packages of care into the system last year, and we’re injecting another 32,000 into the system this year. We've made changes to the queue rates, we're creating review pathways, assessment escalation and of course, importantly, we put in place a priority pathway for people with MND because we know that it is a degenerative disease. We want to support people who are living with MND to live as happily and as comfortably as possible.
HOST: A lot of this efficiency I would imagine comes from computerisation. And people get assessed, not just by their doctor, but by an algorithm which decides whether they're going to get home care. And no doubt you'll be glued to the television as Four Corners look at the aged care algorithm, which actually decides the support for older Australians. Professor Kathy Eagar, ex-University of Wollongong, had this to say about it.
[Excerpt]
KATHY EAGAR: The algorithm cannot be fixed by tinkering. It can only be fixed by ditching the whole algorithm and starting again.
[End of excerpt]
HOST: Minister Rae, are we in danger of another Robodebt making all of these decisions rather than having some humans in the process?
RAE: No, we're not, Nick. The reality is care in its reality is about the relationship between two people. It can't ever be replaced, and good care has to focus on the human beings that are involved. There's a lot of misinformation around about the assessment system, and unfortunately some of that is being peddled along the way. The reality…
HOST: Can you give me an example of the misinformation that's being peddled?
RAE: The new assessment system is delivering faster, more equitable and fairer outcomes for older people. It came into place last year and alongside it was the Integrated Assessment Tool, which is a structured approach to making sure that every older person through their one-on-one assessment with a qualified assessor is treated the same way under the Aged Care Act. And that is leading to a situation where we're driving down the wait times. We did about a quarter of a million assessments in six months this year, Nick. So, we've got a huge volume of assessments that we're working through, and we don't want people waiting. We want people to be getting assessed regularly in accordance with their needs, and that's what our new assessment program is focused on. We're getting better outcomes, we're reducing wait times and we're getting fairer outcomes for older people, which is critically important as well.
HOST: Well, speaking of fairness, would you agree to be more transparent about how that algorithm actually works and how it’s weighted?
RAE: Well, there's a huge amount of transparency. The way that this assessment system works is laid out in legislation, Nick. So it's very clear for people to see what that process looks like. As I said, it's a human assessor, a qualified, highly skilled human assessor, usually in the home of the older person, working through a structured data collection approach. That clinical data is entered into the Integrated Assessment Tool, and we then draw from that data to understand what the person's needs are and how we can attribute care accordingly.
HOST: Just finally, Minister, I know you're also launching a new campaign to help Australians reduce their dementia risk. Could you briefly outline that for me?
RAE: Sure can, Nick. Dementia, and this should be a concern to everybody, dementia is now the leading cause of death in Australia. And, importantly, around half of the cases, they could either be delayed or they could be avoided entirely. So the Federal Government has launched a public health campaign to send out letters to 340,000 Australians who turned 50 last year to outline some risk factors and provide them with some resources to allow them and empower them to invest in their own brain health.
Now, Nick, 50 might seem young to start thinking about dementia risk, but I can tell you, you're never too young, and you're never too old for that matter, to start thinking about how to avoid the risks of dementia. And there are some modest lifestyle changes that we can all make that'll reduce our risk and make sure that we live healthy and fulfilling lives for much longer.
HOST: All right, Sam Rae, good to talk to you today. Thanks very much.
RAE: Take care, Nick.