Most older people want to remain living independently in their own home, and why wouldn't they?
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Having to relinquish your home which is filled with memories, where you may have raise a family and lived for decades, leaving friends, pets and social contacts, to move into an institution is devastating and often dehumanising.
Looking after someone in residential aged care is also very expensive.
Yet one-fifth of Australians aged 80 or older live in residential age care - one of the highest proportions in the world.
But it doesn't have to be like that according to leading advocacy organisation OPAN.
It has released a policy statement which sets out some practical solutions, starting with appropriately funded and structured home care, based on an older person's needs.
"As a nation, we can - and must - do better," Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) chief executive Craig Gear said.
"As well as upholding an older person's right to independence, effective and responsive home care makes good financial sense, since it is much more cost-effective than residential aged care.
As well as improvements in the provision of home care. OPAN is calling for greater investment in affordable and accessible housing options.
"A large proportion of existing rental and social housing does not meet the required accessibility standards to support ageing in place," said Mr Gear.
"Older people in the private rental sector face additional uncertainties including issues around security of tenure and rental increases."
In the position paper, OPAN supports the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute's (AHURI) call for innovation, including collaborative housing, rental retirement villages and home share arrangements.
"Too often aged care policy and programs assume that older people own their own home and can make the modifications required to support them to age independently in the community," said the paper.
According to Mr Gear some older people need intensive support provided by residential aged care but OPAN would like to see a move towards providing a more homely and less of an institutional environment in both new and existing facilities.
"Let's ensure any future builds adhere to the deinstitutionalised approach. When building new developments, we urge sector stakeholders to consider older people's preference for smaller-scale facilities.
"Existing facilities can still address the issue through better design," he said.
- Older Persons Advocacy network: opan.org.au 1800-700-600.