Australian Directions In Aged Care

Today, more than two million Australians are over 70 years of age; by the year 2050 seniors are likely to make up almost 30 percent of the population. The implications of this are not just political; they are very personal. At some stage in life, most of us will help an elderly friend, parent, partner, relative or spouse make important decisions about their health and wellbeing, housing, care, finances, legal affairs and end of life care. This book has been written for any Australian who loves and cares for an elderly parent or other person, anyone responsible for an elderly persons wellbeing, or who simply wants to prepare for their own future. It includes practical strategies for assessing older peoples needs; dealing with family dynamics; finding home help; preventing falls and other accidents; moving into an aged care home; managing financial and legal affairs; and getting the best possible medical and end-of-life care.

Covers a wide range of issues, including health, retirement incomes, aged care, family relations, employment, housing, and town planning; special attention is given to the particular structural disadvantages affecting women, Aboriginal Australians, and ethnic minorities.

"I want this book to give hope and guidance, and offer some light in the midst of the madness.” The Australian Ageing Generation Handbook is the only of its kind in Australia and just in time. Recent studies show that Dementia will become Australia’s greatest killer in the coming years. With great improvements in the world of modern medicine, senior Australian’s are enjoying their quality of life for a much longer time. However this means the ageing population of Australia is also increasing and many children are struggling to cope with the responsibility of care for an older parent as well as their own children while maintaining a healthy work life balance. Josie lives this life right now, and has been caring for her mother who suffers from Dementia for several years. As Josie experienced, in the beginning, many children caring for older parents have no idea what to do, where to go for help, how to navigate not only the services on offer, but also the flood of emotions and challenges that face them. The Sandwich Generation as Josie calls it is the key market – the generation in between looking after elderly parents, and kids, and perhaps even grandkids. However, younger generations looking after elderly parents, or even grandparents, will benefit from this book also. Collaborating with aged care services and communities around Australia, Josie has fast become the go to guide for ageing care. A member of Alzheimer’s Australia, Josie has written The Australian Ageing Generation Handbook to provide Australians with a resourceful list of services for the family members caring for their elderly parents.

The Handbook of Social Work in Health and Aging is the first reference to combine the fields of health care, aging, and social work in a single, authoritative volume. These areas are too often treated as discrete entities, while the reality is that all social workers deal with issues in health and aging on a daily basis, regardless of practice specialization. As the baby boomers age, the impact on practice in health and aging will be dramatic, and social workers need more specialized knowledge about aging, health care, and the resources available to best serve older adults and their families. The volume's 102 original chapters and 13 overviews, written by the most experienced and prominent gerontological health care scholars in the United States and across the world, provide social work practitioners and educators with up-to-date knowledge of evidence-based practice guidelines for effectively assessing and treating older adults and their families; new models for intervention in both community-based practice and institutional care; and knowledge of significant policy and research issues in health and aging. A truly monumental resource, this handbook represents the best research on health and aging available to social workers today.

The Australian Carer: A Training Manual for Ageing Support, 5th Edition addresses the Certificate III in Individual Support: all core units contextualised to the aged care environment with an additional eight electives. The reader-friendly text is well regarded for its real-world case database, which provides students with examples of workplace experience that add context to their learning. A practical, down-to-earth training manual for personal care workers in the contemporary health and community services environment, it also supports skill development and knowledge for the competencies and qualifications associated with the training package for aged care.

Care for Australia's children and elderly is provided in a mixed economy, in which for-profit providers are playing an increasingly important role alongside more traditional government and non-government organisations. Does the growth of for-profit provision affect the quality of services or of jobs in paid care? Does it change the political dynamics of the social care sector in contemporary welfare states? How might service users, their families, and organisations work together to sustain and improve the quality of care services? What theories and evidence help us to understand the process and consequences of the shift toward for-profit provision of social care? In nine chapters by leading researchers, this book explores these and other questions, to inform policy and practice in this key field of social policy.

P. 15 : Access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people p. 25 : Table 3.1 Permanent and respite residents by Indigenous status and sex, 30 June 2011.