Aged Care in Australia

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released two reports:


Residential aged care in Australia 2008-09 - This report provides comprehensive statistical information on residential aged care facilities and services, their residents, admissions and separations, and residents' dependency levels. At 30 June 2009, there were over 178,000 residential aged care places, an increase of 1.6% compared with 30 June 2008. Almost 82,000 permanent residents (59%) had a recorded diagnosis of dementia at 30 June 2009. Other recorded health conditions affecting residents included circulatory diseases (42,000 residents) and diseases of the musculoskeletal and connective tissue (26,800 residents). (AIHW catalogue no. AGE62)


Aged care packages in the community 2008-09: a statistical overview - At 30 June 2009, over 44,000 people were receiving help from a community aged care package, including just over 23,300 new admissions during 2008-09. The findings suggest that proportionate to their populations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and those from non-English speaking countries used community aged care packages at a higher rate compared with other Australians. (AIHW catalogue no. AGE61)