A leading aged-care provider in the west is lobbying for a return of federal government dementia-care funding.
Doutta Galla Aged Services, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has lost $800,000 in funding in favour of a “token” advisory service.
Shadow Minister for Ageing, Shayne Neumann, visited Doutta Galla’s Footscray centre last Wednesday to discuss the funding loss and its effect on dementia programs and building projects.
Doutta Galla chair Bruce Mildenhall said the visit came about after a recent trip to Canberra with chief executive Vanda Iaconese, as part of an Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA) delegation to talk to federal MPs and senators about the challenges facing aged care providers in the wake of the cuts.
The Abbott government scrapped $100 million in annual funding to aged-care providers looking after dementia sufferers, replacing it with $54.5 million over four years to establish severe behaviour response teams (SBRTs), a mobile workforce of clinical experts sent out to support dementia patients in aged-care centres.
“It’s very frustrating, they took $800,000 out that was for specialist dementia services and replaced it with an advisory service that tells us what we already know,” Mr Mildenhall said.
“We need to look at returning these services – as the government recently said, dementia is a huge issue and has now become the second biggest killer in Australia.”
Mr Mildenhall said Doutta Galla would continue to advocate and lobby on behalf of more than 500 residents to improve the aged care system and health outcomes for older people.
