Federal Ageing Minister Justine Elliott has told a national conference of Catholic ageing service providers that demographic changes will have a significant impact on the number of older Australians who require care in the future.
Speaking at the seminar titled "Delivering Care with a Declining Workforce", Mrs Elliott told church and not-for-profit aged care sector leaders that Australia's demographic changes will have a significant impact on the number of older Australians who require care in the future.
"It is expected that by 2051, people aged 65 years and over will represent more than a quarter of our population. In terms of sheer numbers, there are now more than 2.6 million Australians over 65 and this is expected to almost triple to around 7 million by 2051," Mrs Elliott said.
"The Australian Bureau of Statistics .... predict the number of people aged over 100 years will increase from 2,860 people today to 78,000 people by 2055."
Mrs Elliott paid tribute to the many aged care workers across the country, including the 2,873 providers of residential aged care services.
"The Australian Government recognises the very important work done by aged care providers and their staff to ensure residents are well looked after. Aged care workers are there to be supported in every way possible and their significant care and commitment must be recognised," she said.
The Minister said the Australian Government's funding for aged and community care will reach record levels of more than $40 billion over the next four years, with $28.6 billion of that on residential aged care alone.
"No other Australian Government in history has made this level of commitment to aged care," she said.
SOURCE
Minister Elliott highlights government commitments to help meet the Aged Care challenge (Church Resources, Media Release, 18/9/08)
LINKS
Aged Care News (Church Resources)