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Independent and Active:: NSW Labor's Ageing Policy
Independent and Active:: NSW Labor's Ageing Policy
March 2011
Independent and active – NSW Labor’s ageing policy
Australians have the longest life expectancy in the English speaking world – ahead of
Canada, the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
We enjoy this remarkable longevity due to medical advances, preventative measures, our
healthy lifestyles and our health and hospital system.
I believe that a long life expectancy is one of the great achievements of living in NSW.
Currently around one million people in NSW are aged 65 years and older. This represents
14 per cent of the population. The proportion of older people will continue to rise as the
baby boomers begin to reach retirement age.
And while it presents demographic changes for governments, it also means we have a
workforce with wisdom and experience.
That is why we are celebrating and supporting our ageing population with Independent
and active – NSW Labor’s ageing Policy.
¾ Prevention and early intervention – providing improved health to reduce lifestyle related
disease;
¾ Liveable homes and communities – making our living spaces more flexible and safe
through better design and allowing older people to remain independent in their own
homes; and
¾ Social and economic engagement – including helping people plan for their ageing so
they can remain financially independent and secure.
As well as supporting people with dementia and their carers, we are also embarking on
new policies like establishing a Grandparents’ Day.
This will happen in the first Sunday of November to recognise their contribution and
achievements.
In addition, we will expand the three Premier’s Seniors Concerts at the Sydney
Entertainment Centres to Newcastle and Wollongong. They will be streamed live to
community centres in regional centres across the State.
I can also assure you that, beyond this plan, positive ageing is now a key focus across all
Government planning. Our State Plan and Metropolitan Plan, for example, ensure that our
towns and cities are being designed to meet the needs of older citizens, with more homes
close to public transport services.
With the right plans and investment, we can ensure longer lives mean additional
years that are full, independent and rewarding.
Research shows that older people remain active, if they are able to age in their own
homes and retain their independence.
More of us than ever before will have the opportunity to meet our great-grand-children, and
perhaps even better, more children will get to know their great grandparents.
What this policy means for our community
The Keneally Government supports older people by providing:
¾ Support at home with personal care, domestic support, meals and home
maintenance;
¾ Respite for them and their carers;
¾ Community transport;
¾ Community nursing and allied health services;
¾ Active and positive ageing through Seniors Week and Seniors Card; and
¾ Community awareness about issues that affect older people.
A re-elected Keneally Government will provide more accessible public services for seniors
and continue to support services that allow them to remain independent and in their
homes.
This will include important measures like low floor wheelchair accessible buses and trains.
We will ensure lifetime health is a cornerstone of the health system and that legal and
financial services are easily accessed and understood.
In addition, we will continue the Positive Ageing Grants that fund activities and facilities for
older people’s social engagement.
Under this policy care for people with complex health care needs will remain a key priority.
This is because we know that well managed care can prevent unexpected hospitalisations.
ACTION:
Positive Ageing
Expand the Ageing Grants Program by $200,000, which funds positive ageing activities
and facilities for older people’s social engagement
Expand the three Premier’s Seniors Concerts at the Sydney Entertainment Centres to
Newcastle and Wollongong and stream them live to community centres in regional
centres across the State. They usually attract about 10,000 people to each Sydney
performance.
Hold an annual NSW Grandparents Day on the first Sunday in November to celebrate
and recognise their contribution to our society
Preventing falls
Implementation of ‘Stepping On’ across NSW – ‘Stepping On’ is a multi-faceted falls
prevention program for elderly people living in the community so they can avoid
entering residential aged care
While increasing life expectancies bring with it many benefits it can also result in unique
health concerns such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis. Other concerns include
social isolation, loneliness and mobility issues.
NSW Labor’s plans are people centred and aim to ensure that as our state grows the built
environment, infrastructure and services reflect design principles that deliver accessibility.
For many older Australians, the Seniors Card is a valuable resource to help with the
challenges of the cost of living.
It is a discount and concessions card which provides NSW Seniors Card members with
access to a range of discounts on products and services and valuable concessions on
NSW and interstate public transport.
A NSW Seniors Card is available to people over 60 and do not work more than 20 hours of
paid work a week.
By 2026, this is expected to increase to more than 1.5 million people, representing 20 per
cent of the population.
In the coming years, this will be a challenge for the health system, for urban planning, for
service delivery and many other areas of government investment.
The demand for health and community care services is growing and requires a shift toward
smarter investment in early intervention and improved service and infrastructure design to
ensure that we can avoid the ad hoc costs that arise from poorly managed ageing.
Positive ageing is about helping seniors remain active in their social networks, careers and
in their community.
Helping seniors engage in a wide variety of local, social and volunteer activities benefits
both them and their community.
A re-elected Keneally Government will continue to fund activities and measures that
facilitate the social engagement of seniors in our community through th positive ageing
grants program.
We will also create a new “Grandparents Day” to celebrate and recognise the
contributions of grandparents across this State.
It will coincide with Queensland’s Grandparents’ Day which was recognised for the
first time last November.
It will be celebrated in our schools, community groups and homes on the first
Sunday of November each year.
The United States, Canada, Estonia, Poland, France, Italy and the United Kingdom
also mark Grandparents’ Day – but on various days.
ACTION
Our lung capacity, muscle strength and heart health peak in early adulthood. The rate of
decline is influenced by genetics and biology but is also affected by lifestyle factors like
smoking, diet, alcohol consumption and physical activity.
Adopting healthy behaviours and taking other preventative actions throughout life can
result in improvements in health status, independence and quality of life in older people.
Many of these choices are personal but the government can take a role in encouraging
people to understand the advantages of long term health.
The government does this by investing in public health campaigns to reduce smoking,
prevent fall and promote more exercise.
The NSW State Plan commits the NSW Government to identifying opportunities for shifting
resources to prevention and early intervention to achieve economic and social benefits in
the longer term.
Acting early on a population wide basis we can reduce the human and economic
consequences of lifestyle related illness in older citizens.
ACTION:
In NSW, the number of people with dementia is projected to increase four-fold from
approximately 88,000 in 2010 to 341,000 in 2050.
Each year nearly 26,000 new cases of dementia are diagnosed in NSW. By 2050 this will
increase to 116,000 new cases per year.
A re-elected Labor government will support people with dementia and their carers through
the NSW Dementia Services Framework 2010 – 2015.
NSW Labor will provide an additional nine dementia day care centres, bringing the total to
17 across the State. These day care centres provide therapeutic social opportunities for
people with dementia and also provide respite to carers of people with dementia.
A re-elected Keneally Government will finalise and roll out the Framework Implementation
Plan for dementia.
ACTION:
Eliminating falls is an important part of the NSW Government’s efforts in preventive health
- around 30 per cent of injury-related deaths in Australia are due to falls.
Falls can result in serious injury, including admission to hospital – and they are the most
common reason for premature admission into residential aged care.
The NSW Government has made information available to all residents to preserve
themselves as well as possible against falls.
Stepping On is a multi-faceted falls prevention program for elderly people living in the
community which helps them to take control in their everyday lives. The program aims to
enhance confidence and reduce falls in everyday life.
Stepping On programs are now running across five NSW Area Health Services covering
the North Coast, North Sydney, Central Coast, the Hunter, New England, South West
Sydney, South Eastern Sydney and the Illawarra. A re-elected government would roll it out
across the remainder of the state.
ACTION:
We also developed Taking Care of Business to inform Aboriginal people of the options for
planning for their future financial, health and family decisions.
A re-elected Keneally Government will create a new website to assist people to plan for
their future.
The website will be developed jointly by the NSW Trustee and Guardian and the Office for
Ageing.
The website will direct them to a range of options for legal completion of the documents.
ACTION:
A new one stop shop web site for legal resources for wills and
guardianship
Social housing plays a key role and a re-elected Keneally government will continue to
refurbish homes to suit older residents and work with the Commonwealth to deliver new
social housing for older people.
ACTION:
For government, it poses two challenges – declining revenue to provide services and
increasing costs of those services.
In terms of revenue, put simply, less people of a working age means less tax revenue for
the community to spend on essential services such as health and education.
In terms of costs, we will experience much higher health costs as a larger percentage of
the population are dealing with age related health and disability issues, such as dementia
and heart disease.
Just as this issue poses challenges for Government, it also poses challenges for business.
Businesses will be confronted with the impact of large numbers of people retiring, leading
to critical skills shortages and loss of corporate knowledge.
Business is already adapting to the changing labor market conditions and adopting new
strategies to recruit and retain older workers.
A recent Australian Bureau of Statistics study found that the workforce participation rate of
over 55s has increased from 25 per cent to 34 per cent over the last 30 years, with most of
that increase occurring after the year 2000.
In 2008/09 alone, 144,000 over 55s came out of retirement and returned to work.
To deal with this challenge, the NSW Government made it a priority in our whole-of-
Government ageing strategy Towards 2030: Planning for our changing population.
Last November, the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Ageing invited businesses and
organisations with a record of employing and retaining older workers to a roundtable
discussion on the issues and strategies of employment and older workers.
The roundtable provided the ideal opportunity to share ideas on how we can work together
to promote greater employment and retention strategies of older workers.
Authorised and printed by Michael Lee, 377 Sussex Street Sydney NSW 2000.