Health And Socio-Political Issues In Aged Care

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 1
Health And Socio-Political Issues In Aged Care
Name
Institution

HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 2
HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE
Introduction
The population of the aged in Australia is high, and the government has started to show
concern for this. The aged in the country are faced with challenges of care, and the government
wants to make sure that they can sustain the care system for them in the coming years. As the
population is increasing, the concern for the overall care and safety of the old is rising as well.
The Australian government is concerned with ensuring that this population is taken care of in
terms of wellness, safety, and aged care. According to research, the elderly population is
expected to be twice what it is now in the year 2050.
In the past Australia has been using other models for care of the elderly such as the
Community based services as well as the traditional provider-directed care. The government,
however, decided to change this as they wanted to ensure that the elderly population was
receiving the optimal care that they deserved. This made way for the Consumer Directed model.
In this model, the Australian government pays for most of the services offered while the rest is
catered for by the consumer out of pocket.
Consumer Directed Care
The Consumer Directed Care model also referred to as the CDC is a care model that aims
at achieving flexibility between both the aged care provider and the elderly who is also the
consumer. The CDC is a service delivery that ensures the consumer has total control of
managing their care plan. The consumer also has a choice in whether they want to manage their
care plan or not.

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The sole focus of the model is on choice where the consumer dictates the services they
want to be rendered as well as the person to provide the services and on control where the
consumer again has complete control over their care. By using this model, the Australian
Government wanted to ensure that their elderly were able to make decisions on their own
therefore giving them a sense of independence. Research showed that most older adults do not
like the idea of being stereotyped as being helpless. The government consequently wanted to
ensure that they were able to get a piece of their independence back (Australia, 2017).
The CDC allows for this independence as the consumer can direct the caregiver on the
type of services they want and how they want it as well. This also includes who can deliver the
care. The CDC model mostly works for the aged with the Home Care Package system, and it
allows them to manage their package. This model has proven to be useful as the consumer is
taken care off in accordance with their needs. Once the elderly states what they need and want
and what they hope to achieve, the care provider follows suit. This leads to customer satisfaction
as the consumer gets everything that they wish to (Baldwin, Chenoweth & dela Rama, 2015).
Most of the elderly population especially those with the home care package have adopted
this model as it allows them to take care of themselves as they have throughout their lives. The
consumer in the case of the CDC model has the ability to:
 State what they want in terms of services, who delivers it and how they provide it.
 Creating a care plan with their aged care provider.
 Choose whether they want to manage their package or not.
 Know the payments involved in the care as well as how the money will be spent.
 Monitor their home care package to establish whether it works for them or not.

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 The provider, on the other hand, is supposed to accomplish the following:
Listen and communicate continuously with their consumer to be aware of their goals and
their needs.
 Come up with care plans that suit the consumer (co-produce it).
 Give all the information to their consumers about the payment involved and how it will
be spent. This creates room for transparency.
 Discuss with the consumer on how much they want them to be involved in managing the
home care package.
From the above, we see that if applied correctly, the CDC model can be useful in
providing the aged with the care that they need (Cash, Moyle & O'dwyer, 2017).
The political view of the CDC model
The Australian citizens are responsible for the funding of the aged care system, through
the taxes that they pay. The government allocates part of these taxes to the aged care system so
that they can provide the financial help to them as most of them are not able to afford it.
However they only pay part of it and the rest, the consumer has to pay for themselves. The
Australian government made this a priority when allocating taxes money as they wanted to be
able to sustain the aged population and their care well into the future (Hume et al., 2015).
The Department of Health in the country ensures that the elderly can receive the care that
they need by appropriately using the funds to provide care of all. However, there have been
claims that the government does not take into account the elderly population living in the remote
areas of the country. There have been claims that these funds are not able to reach such