Health and Socio Political Issues in Aged Care Report 2022

Running head: HEALTHCARE
HEALTH AND SOCIO POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

HEALTHCARE1
Introduction:
According to the census report published by the Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare (2019), it has been stated that 1 out of every 7 Australians is aged over 65 years of
old. The statistical data suggests that senior adults form a significant proportion of the
Australian population base (Aph.gov.au, 2019). In this regard, it should be mentioned that the
aged care privileges and facilities are extremely complex and are operated by a network of
complicated funding agencies. The Australian government along with the state and territory
government and insurers are responsible for the provision of the aged care services. However,
despite the efforts undertaken for improving the access and quality of healthcare services
within Australia, the overall health outcome has not shown signs of significant improvement.
This paper intends to evaluate the existing socio-political issues within the health care system
and how it impacts the access to healthcare and affects the quality of the rendered services.
Discussion:
Explanation of Primary health care for older people:
The provision of primary healthcare comprises of a complex network of providers and
services across the private, public and non-governmental domains. In this context, it should
be noted that the primary level of health care services encompass of the provision of clinical
services (Mossialos et al., 2016). The service provision involves the efficient coordination
between the team of multidisciplinary care professionals who devise care plans to address the
holistic needs of the patients.
The evidence base suggests that within the Australian territory, care is generally
provided by the General Physician, however, care professionals such as general practice
nurse, Nurse practitioners, community nurses, midwives, pharmacists, aboriginal health
workers, nutritionist and pharmacists are also considered as primary healthcare providers.

HEALTHCARE2
As stated by www.health.gov.au (2019), primary healthcare can be defined as first
line of the healthcare services that are available for patients. Primary healthcare services can
be availed by patients at home, community health centres or local or non-government
settings. A broad range of healthcare services are provided under the primary healthcare
system and includes facilities such as health promotion, screening and prevention, diagnosis,
treatment and management (O’Lughlin et al., 2017). Primary healthcare services are
specifically targeted for different proportions of the Australian population that include, Aged
care, care for the aboriginal and Torres Islander, refugees or culturally diverse patients
(O’Lughlin et al., 2017).
Specific to old age people a wide range of primary healthcare services are available
that are funded by the national and territory specific governing bodies. The commonwealth
finding provides for a wide range of services that include, age pensions, disability payments
and rent assistance, residential services, medical and pharmaceutical benefits, acute care,
public housing and hospital and community care support. In addition to assistance to the
elderly has also been made available in the form of payments such as carer payment and the
carer allowance and funding for carer respite centres. Accessory services provided by the
commonwealth include, financial counselling, health promotional programs, rehabilitation
services, retirement assistance, advocacy services, support for consumer organizations and
information related government programs (Beard et al., 2016). Different state and territory
also provide welfare services that are funded by the commonwealth and are provisioned
within residential care homes for the elderly. These, services include, respite care, carer
assistance, dementia support programs, senior cards to avail discount on services, home help,
information services and transport assistance (Chihuri et al., 2016). In the similar way, the
local government and NGOs also provide a wide range of care services for the elderly that