British report addresses aged care issues

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011

A report recently released out of Britain concludes that significant taxpayer savings and personal welfare gains can be made by assisting elderly people to live at home longer.

The dementia care report, http://www.hah.co.uk/sites/default/files/upload/files/HAH_Report_web.pdf commissioned by Britain’s largest homecare provider, Healthcare at Home, used a reference group of people including independent health sector experts to assess ways to deal with the ageing population and the rapidly growing costs the health system will face as a result.

It is well documented that the New Zealand health system faces a similar issue.

Statistics here show the number of dementia patients will grow from 41,000 now to 77,000 by 2026 and then 146,000 by 2050.

The British report explored three methods of aged care, including living in care homes, living at home and relying almost solely on state-funded care assistance, and living at home using additional support and services from the private and voluntary sectors.

The reference group agreed the latter option of care provided the best environment for patients and their carers.

The report outlines the need to reduce avoidable hospital admissions for patients with dementia and says identifying unmet needs and bridging service gaps through more coordinated home-based services can achieve that and help keep patients happy and healthy.

Such care can range from simple social contact and assistance around the home to more specialised administration of medicines, and it can equate to taxpayer money saved and greater independence for those not wanting to enter rest homes.

The report identified many of the same problems that we have here in New Zealand.

Another report http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/24/47836116.pdf on aged care, released last month by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said the cost of caring for the elderly in many industrialised nations could treble by 2050.

The OECD estimates that 10 percent of people in OECD countries will be over 80 by 2050, compared to 4 percent in 2010.

It said the average spend on long term care by 25 OECD countries, as a percentage of GDP in 2008, was 1.5 percent (NZ is about on the average). However, that could in New Zealand’s case more than double by 2050, placing a huge burden on services.

We at Miranda Smith Homecare accept the government is not totally ignoring the issue – having allocated more money for dementia care in last month’s budget and launching its “Better Sooner, More Convenient Health Care in the Community strategy last week.

But it needs a new approach to supporting dementia patients and their carers - especially family members and community organisations.

Money for more rest home beds is only a short term solution to a large long-term problem.

As the number of patients increases there will be problems with the work force, emergency support, late diagnosis and insufficient expertise in the system.

"Baby boomers" are reluctant to give up their independence and will increasingly choose to remain in their own homes.

That is why we need to work together (government, private sector, community organisations and medical specialists) to try and develop a plan on how the clear path of a dementia patient will look.