Australia needs to prioritise care at home as part of its overall health care model to deal with the country’s shifting demographics, according to the nation’s leading demographer and social commentator Bernard Salt AM.
Speaking at the inaugural Silverchain Symposium in Perth this week, Mr Salt said the focus on “bricks and mortar” hospitals was a 19th century health care model that was not fit-for-purpose for the shifting demographics that would be heavily impacted by the ageing baby boomer generation.
“The baby boomer freight train is heading straight for us; we will have to deal with an issue at a scale that humanity has never had to deal with previously: so many people in a stage of the life cycle where they need so much care,” Mr Salt said.
“We have to reorganise society in such a way that we can care for the needs of an older population.
“The two options we have would be ratchet up taxes to a stratospheric level or we can find innovative solutions, and providing care at home is one way to do that.
“The baby boomers are a generation that is not just going to sit around and wait to die. They will want to remain mobile and active and they will want to contribute to society.
Mr Salt said that based on Australian Bureau of Statistics, the 85+ population will grow to more than 2 million by 2071, with the year-on-year net growth peaking at 62,000 by 2032 as the baby boomer generation ages.
Mr Salt said society as a whole would also need to shift the way it viewed older generations, including the “age language” used to describe older Australians.
“It has to be more nuanced than describing older people as simply being, for example, aged 55-plus. There has to be more nuance and categories when describing older people; there’s a vast difference between being 55 and 85.”
The Silverchain Symposium, held at the University Club of Western Australia on Tuesday, brought together leaders in the health and aged-care sector to discuss the future of care in Australia through various keynote addresses and panel discussions.
Silverchain Group Chief Executive Dale Fisher AM said the Symposium, which was part of the organisation’s 130th anniversary celebrations, was a time to highlight the unique opportunity for Australia to move more care into the home.
“When you examine the international health care direction and progressive policies overseas that incentivises the shift to home care, Australia falls well short of the proportion of care that can be and should be delivered in the home,” Adj Prof Fisher said.
“Importantly consumers want this shift, and policy and funding are lagging behind.
