AUSTRALIA: Aged shun nursing homes and stay put

. SYDNEY, NSW / The Australian / January 30, 2009 By Siobhain Ryan ELDERLY Australians are breaking down the retirement village walls, with aged care operators lodging twice the interest in providing care in the community than in nursing homes. Official figures obtained by The Australian show the federal Government has received 10 times the number of applications to provide care in people's homes as there are places available. The 27,039 bids for the government-funded community care places dramatically outnumbered the 13,956 received for nursing home places. Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, said the Government was looking at ways to expand community care in response to the demand. "It is wonderful that the aged-care sector are listening and responding to the concerns and preferences of older Australians," Ms Elliot said. "Older Australians are telling us they want the choice to remain in their homes and only want to enter nursing homes when it is absolutely necessary. "Older Australians are healthier and more active (when) they are in familiar surroundings." Community care offers in-home support services such as cleaning, washing, showering and preparing meals for the frail aged, including those with dementia. Almost 465,000 Australians are forecast to develop dementia by 2031, more than double the current number, forcing many of them into nursing homes unless at-home services are available. The latest annual round of community care packages offered 2784 of the subsidised places to the aged care sector. NSW and Victorian applicants were the most enthusiastic, with all jurisdictions bar the Northern Territory bidding for more packages than were available. The high take-up rate takes some of the pressure off the federal Government, which failed to convince nursing homes in Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT to bid for all the nursing home beds on offer in those states. Aged-care operators have complained the level of subsidy attached to the residential places made it unviable to build new beds, with some boycotting the process. Nursing home beds cost the taxpayer more than community care packages, which are now being used to help more than 60,000 elderly people a year. Copyright 2009 News Limited