Home Care Packages for Older Australians

By Petrina Smith
Tuesday, 09 July, 2013

The first Home Care packages for older Australians have been announced by Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Senator Jacinta Collins, as part of more than $500 million in aged care funding.
A total of 5,835 new Home Care packages will provide vital services which will enable people to stay in their own homes, while 7,775 new residential aged care places will also be established.
Home Care Packages are specially tailored to older people’s care needs, with services including personal care, house cleaning and home modifications, transport and clinical care.
The 2012-13 Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR) will also provide aged care homes with $51 million in capital grants while $156 million in zero real interest loans will help them build or upgrade.
Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and special needs groups will receive significant new capital funding as well as residential places, such as:

$11million and 60 residential places to establish a new aged care home in Melbourne for people from the Indo-Chinese community;

$12.5 million and 19 residential places to redevelop and expand an aged care home for Indigenous Australians in Queensland’s Logan River Valley;

$3.95 million and 14 residential places for new accommodation at Lionsbrae Hostel in Melbourne for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.