National Respite and Community Care Conference Respite Issues in Community Aged Care 23 October 2014 Sue Elderton National Policy Manager Carers Australia

About Carers Australia  Carers Australia is the national peak body representing the diversity of Australians who provide unpaid care and support to family members and friends with a:  disability  chronic condition  mental illness or disorder  drug or alcohol problem  terminal illness  or who are frail aged.  Carers Australia has associations in all states and territories which provide:  information and referral  Counselling  respite  education and training  and a host of other supports.

Respite – a knotty problem  Beset with issues about who “owns” the respite  This, in turn, contributes to:  Disconnect between aged care and disability care  The boxing of respite options into disparate programs to serve the care recipient

Ownership issues continue to dog carers access to respite under aged care reform Home Care Packages  Respite care continues to come out of the package of the person being cared for  Carers reluctant to cut into the supports for the person they care for  CHSP clients will get respite priority CHSP  Respite continues to be “owned” by the direct CHSP client  Respite will become more expensive - co-contribution to move from current national average of around 5% cent collection to 15% per cent nationally by subject to means testing.  Will only deliver basic-level services to older people living in the community and their carers

Getting caught between aged and disability care CHSP respite  Limitation of 68 days + special circumstances  Co-contributions to cost of respite required in most cases  Respite part of the care recipient’s package NDIS respite  Respite entitlements layered: between 7 and 28 days p.a. + (special circumstances  Co-contribution to costs unclear  Access depends on planner’s perception of need within context of full package  Respite part of participant’s package Sandwich carers Carers of people not eligible for either ?

CA recommendations on CHSP design  The CHSP to consider carers as partners in care as well as individuals with their own needs.  Carers have access to the suite of respite care services within the CHSP as well as the residential respite care program based on their own assessed need in cases where the person they care for receives a Home Care Package that is fully expended on meeting their needs.  Carers also need access to access to restorative care through CHSP allied health services

CA recommendations on CHSP design  Face-to-face assessment should always be made available when a care relationship has been identified through the screening process. Domains of assessment to include:  Caring tasks and responsibilities  Other responsibilities – employment, study, care for others  Carers physical and emotion health status  Sustainability of the care relationship  Access to other supports  Carer goals

CA recommendations on CHSP design  A carer of an aged person (whatever the carers’ age) should be eligible for CHSP even where the eligible person they care for is not receiving a service themselves.  Carer support services other than respite care should not be part of the CHSP, just as they are not part of the NDIS.

If we could start from scratch, what would we have preferred?  Carer supports should be available from their own bucket of funding PROVIDING adequately funded  Carers get access to personal budgets to purchase the services they are assessed as needing – including the respite options they want BUT  How to resolve the “ownership” problem?