Instructions
Discuss the challenges Australia faces due to our ageing population and identify some possible ways to meet these challenges.
Introduction
The number of Australian living longer has been increasingly significantly for the last two decades. Australia is number six in the world in terms of high life expectancy. This means the number of people in the country’s population who are over 65 years and above is getting bigger and is expected to hit 4 million people by the year 2022 (Cooke and Bartram, 2015, p. 200). Life expectancy at the moment stands at 81 years for men and 85 years for women which are a big increase from 70 years for men and 74 for women two decades ago.
There are many factors which have been attributed to this prolonged life expectancy. For starters, there has been an improvement in the kind of health services that folks aged 65 years and above are provided with. As it is well known, people who have reached that age are more susceptible to a retinue of age-related diseases like diabetes, heart complications, cancer and many others (Osborn et al.,2015, p. 250). An improvement in healthcare means that those diseases can now be contained and managed, meaning higher survival rate for those with such ailments.
There is also more awareness by these older folks of how to avoid poor life choices like overconsumption of alcohol, smoking, eating foods that are bad for the body and others. This means that the folks will hit the 65 years mark with less health complications hence increase their chances of living longer.
The working conditions and environment in Australian workplaces has also been improving for a while now. Safer working environment means workers are not exposed to hazardous working conditions and so they have less chances of catching hazards which can cause health complications later in life. Less diseases at old age means more chances of living a prolonged life.
Challenges Australia is facing due to increase in life expectancy
The increase in the number of people who are 65 years and above has brought with it challenges. the most significant challenge is how the government can manage and care the ballooning aged population. The other challenge is how to get enough younger people to replace the retiring ones in the job market.
Managing and caring for an increased number of aged people.
The official retirement age in Australia is 60 years and once many of the folks retire, they depend on their pension stipends to sustain them through to their time of demise (Rose, Ferguson, Power, Togher, and Worrall, 2015, p. 50). Most of the pension money is never enough to sustain these folks as the number of personal care and health care needs keeps on increasing as their age progresses.
Insufficiently funded and planned home based care packages
Many of the older folks opt to stay in their homes for as long as it is practically and medically possible. The government has some programs for the home-based aged people who have chosen to be cared from home. The Community Aged Care Packages is one such initiative from the government but the program has problems with availability of resources and delivery of services (Farley et al., 2015, p. 350). The administrative costs of some of these packages is also too high which means there is a reduction in the amount of subsidy that is supposed to fund for the home care providers.
Poorly planned residential care program
Residential aged care programs are partly funded by the government in the tune of 10 billion dollars per year. The other part is funded by aged folks who can afford to do so or by their families. The government has also put regulations on how much these homes can charge and the quality of care they should provide. But there have been complaints from aged care providers about the amount of funds provided by the government to subsidize the service (Jang-Jaccard et al.,, 2015, p. 263). They say that they operate their service at loss due to the shortfalls in funding although it is hard to substantiate their argument since there is no standard benchmark for the costs. This shortfall in the financing of the service has led to those running home care services been demoralized and discouraged to work ways of improving and upgrading their facilities and services. This means there has been no improvement in the number and quality of services provided to these aged folks.
Excess regulation of the aged care system
Although there is a need to put down regulations and guidelines on how aged care providers should be run, some of the rules have been pointed out as been an impediment to a smooth running of the care centers and improvement of the quality of care provided. Many of the regulations touch on how to control overspending by the providers and also how to manage supply of services. They were justifiably set so as to protect the residents from been accorded poor services and been mistreated (Hussein and Ismail, 2017, p. 40). But the Care providers argue that some of the laws should be done away with to allow the aged people wishing to join these homes leeway to choose which homes they would wish to join.
They also argue that loosening the laws would allow for more competition in the sector which will naturally lead to better services. The government, they say, should be reduce its role to only assessing the aged care residences, quality and safety of services given and protecting the consumers financially.
Ageing aged care personnel
The number people working in the aged care are reducing as they more of them are reaching retirement age. This, coupled with the few number of people who are joining the sector as aged care workers is slowly creating a shortfall of the available workforce to take care of the aged in their homes (Hugo and SA, 2015, p. 70). This leaves the sector with little option but to call out on family members of those resident in the homes to come and supplement the available workforce and care for their aged family members. But this is just a stop gap measure which is not sustainable as there is no guarantee of availability of the family members.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the ageing population will keep on further reducing the number of available health care workers in future. This is posing a serious challenge to the country as demand for aged care personnel is increasingly outstripping supply (Harper, 2015, p. 30). The fact that aged care workers are among the lowest paid in Australia and informal carers are also not sufficiently supported in their endeavors means that there is no financial incentive for more people to join the workforce.
- Getting enough workforce to replace the retiring pensioners
This is a problem that is increasingly getting more serious with each passing time as the number of aged Australians keep on rising. As more aged people are retiring, they are leaving vacancies in the jobs they used to do. The population of those who are supposed to replace them is at the moment stagnant. This means that there is a shortfall in personnel especially for jobs that need to be performed by older experienced folks (Kulik, Ryan, Harper, and George, 2015, p. 60). Many of the jobs performed by these retiring people traditionally conservative ones which the younger population, which is very choosy, is deemed to shun or shy away from doing them.
This has led to more older people been forced by circumstances to postpone their retirement and continue working past their stipulated retirement age. Older people especially those who work in less strenuous jobs are continuing with their work as the employer’s scramble to find appropriate replacements for their job titles.
Solutions to cope with the challenges facing Australia due to ageing population
The government has started another program of Aged Care Package that is directed at the consumer (aged people) and it is too early to assess its viability or success. What is certain is that the Community service sector and the Consumer will need a lot of extra support from relevant parties if the program is to be rolled out to a large number of people (Browne-Yung, Walker, and Luszcz, 2017, p. 35). An extensive and well-funded package program can get the aged population been cared in their homes for as long as possible and reduce the need for residential aged care programs.
Some solutions that have been offered to the problems facing Aged care residencies, most of them centering around the government increasing its funding for the aged care services. Others have suggested that the cost of the service be split between the government and the aged persons. The idea is for the aged care resident to cater for their accommodation (tenancy) while the government to cater for the fund the rest of the services at subsidized costs.
The other proposal is for the government to provide aged care bonds to all people who are entering the aged care residency program (Lee and Coughlin, 2015, p. 76). The bonds, the advocates argue, should be distributed fairly and equitably to all incoming residents. This solution is advocated mainly by aged care providers and they argue that it will provide them with a continuous stream of revenue to finance their capital infrastructure and help them improve the quality of the care they provide.
The problem of ageing aged care personnel can be addressed by providing them with enough financial motivation in the form of higher salaries and other incentives. Informal carers should also be put into government programs with the aim of encouraging and providing them with the support they need to carry out their services (Chand and Tung, 2016, p. 56). The government can also explore on the idea of other models of Aged care that are flexible to avail varieties to choose by older Australians. This will ensure that they will choose from an option that will offer them appropriate and high-quality care.
When it comes to the gap that is forming as a result of more people retiring, employers are putting in contingencies to retain their ageing workforce for a longer period as they look for replacement. These include assigning the older employees less strenuous tasks that their age can accommodate (Stones and Gullifer, 2016, p. 70). Employers are also providing a keener health check system for their older personnel to ensure they stay healthy so as to keep working for longer periods. Other employers are re-employing the pensioners in their companies in roles that are mainly administrative and educative so that they can train the younger employees on their skills so as to replace them in their roles.
Conclusion
As the number of Australians who are hitting the 65-year mark on their age increases, there is a greater need for the government, the community and other players to sit down and put on strategies to mitigate against the challenges that are occurring due this increase. The two main challenges associated with this increase are managing and caring for the increasing number of older population and bridging the gap on workforce shortages that their retirement will create.
The government is been advised by stakeholders to increase its funding on the aged care package programs that it runs so as to ensure better deliverance of care given by the providers (Chand and Tung, 2016, p. 67). It is also been urged to increase the salaries of aged care givers to amounts that are financially attractive to any new people who may want to join the profession.
The policies and guidelines by the government towards the aged care sector are also coming under criticism with the sector players urging it to shed off some of its regulatory roles so as to allow for more space for choice and improvement of services.
Employers are also having to put on plans to accommodate a greater number of people who are willing to work past retirement age so as to bridge the gap that is been created by the increase in the number of retirees.
References
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