Home care focus can meet the baby boomer ‘freight train’

Demographer and social commentator Bernard Salt AM has thrown his support behind Australia prioritising care at home as part of its healthcare model so that the nation can handle the growing healthcare demands of an ageing population.

Speaking at the inaugural symposium for in-home care service provider Silverchain in Perth, Mr Salt said the ‘bricks and mortar’ healthcare approach – particularly in hospitals – is no longer fit for purpose.

“The baby boomer freight train is heading straight for us; we will have to deal with an issue at a scale that humanity has never had to deal with previously: so many people in a stage of the life cycle where they need so much care,” Mr Salt said.

“We have to reorganise society in such a way that we can care for the needs of an older population.

“The two options we have would be ratchet up taxes to a stratospheric level or we can find innovative solutions, and providing care at home is one way to do that.”

With the youngest baby boomers all turning 60 this year, ‘freight train’ has well and truly left the station.

Mr Salt has previously highlighted how aged care providers need to start planning for the incoming wave of baby boomer clients. Data shows the first baby boomers will turn 85 in the early 2030s which is when he believes all resources need to be in place to ensure supply can meet with demand.

The number of people aged 65 and over is projected to increase by 54% over the next 20 years, totalling 6.6 million in 2041 and the vast majority will be seeking out ways to remain active and independent in retirement – or potentially even while working for longer.

“The baby boomers are a generation that is not just going to sit around and wait to die. They will want to remain mobile and active and they will want to contribute to society,” Mr Salt added.

“They will make it clear how their care should be delivered and the vast majority will want in-home care. As a consequence we will see the care sector redefined, re-imagined and repurposed by the emerging older baby boomer generation.”

As baby boomers help to redefine the aged care sector, society may also have to redefine what it views as elderly.

Mr Salt said that based on Australian Bureau of Statistics, the 85+ population will grow to more than two million by 2071, with the year-on-year net growth peaking at 62,000 by 2032 as the baby boomer generation ages.

A more prominent population demographic that’s living longer will mean society has to shift the way it views older generations with Mr Salt calling for better ‘age language’ to describe older adults.

“It has to be more nuanced than describing older people as simply being, for example, aged 55-plus,” he said.

“There has to be more nuance and categories when describing older people; there’s a vast difference between being 55 and 85.”

Silverchain Group Chief Executive Dale Fisher AM echoed Mr Salt’s views as she said now is the right time to explore the full potential for in home care.

“When you examine the international health care direction and progressive policies overseas that incentivises the shift to home care, Australia falls well short of the proportion of care that can be and should be delivered in the home,” Adj Prof Fisher said.

“Importantly consumers want this shift, and policy and funding are lagging behind. It makes social and economic sense to divert our current investment in bricks and mortar to digital infrastructures that enables more care to be provided in the home.

“A shift in policy and funding to home care will also free up the acute care sector to do what it does best. The future of care is in the home.”