For years, respite has been framed as a social or wellbeing issue. A way to give unpaid carers a well-earned break. Important? Without question.
But advocates argue that’s only part of the story.
Behind every exhausted carer is a much larger, and largely preventable, consequence: what happens to Australia’s health and aged care systems when caring relationships collapse?
It’s a cost that hasn’t yet been measured.
Dementia Australia and Carers Australia call for national respite review
The recent joint statement from Dementia Australia and Carers Australia calls for an independent national review of respite services, arguing the sector still doesn’t know the true extent of demand, supply or unmet need. Without that baseline, meaningful reform is little more than guesswork.
Both organisations are calling for respite to be recognised as preventative health infrastructure that keeps caring relationships intact, delays premature residential aged care entry, and reduces pressure on hospitals.
We must acknowledge the care relationship dyad
“We want a different approach. Consider both people in that team; care partner and the person receiving care,” says Joanna Cave, CEO of Carers Australia.
Current assessment and funding models largely focus on the person receiving care, overlooking the person making it possible for them to continue living at home.
It’s an unmistakable blind spot for a sector that relies so heavily on unpaid care. Australia’s largest aged care workforce isn’t employed by providers or governments, but by families. Yet despite being central to the ambition of helping older Australians remain safely at home, those carers are rarely treated as core infrastructure within the system itself.
“If we don’t support them to continue that role, then what will happen is what we’re seeing happen now is they’ll get to a tipping point and burn out,” she said. “They themselves will need care.”
This changes the financial equation considerably.
Invest now or pay more later
Carers Australia points to the stark difference between supporting someone at home versus residential care or hospital. Investing in respite doesn’t simply improve quality of life; it may also reduce demand for significantly more expensive services later.
Carers Australia estimates supporting someone at home costs around $30,000 per year, compared with approximately $130,000 in residential aged care and substantially more if someone becomes stranded in hospital. Even extending successful home care by another year or two could significantly reduce demand on more expensive services.
Cave says the solution isn’t simply more respite, but different respite. Today’s respite models favour planned, longer residential stays, while many carers need flexible, short-notice breaks measured in hours or days.
Considered reform needs data
For Dementia Australia, the immediate challenge is that the sector lacks the evidence needed to redesign the system appropriately.
“We fall at the first hurdle when there’s no good data about how many places there are and what the demand is,” says Dementia Australia’s Executive Director of Policy and Government Relations, Eliza Hazlett.
Hazlett maintains that respite has repeatedly been identified as an issue in previous reviews, but responsibility remains fragmented across multiple programs and funding streams, making coordinated reform a bridge too far, thus far.
For people living with dementia, availability is only part of the challenge. Quality, workforce capability and familiarity all influence whether respite succeeds. A place available at short notice isn’t necessarily the right place.
“People can’t really relax and have the downtime that they need… if they’re worried about the experience that their person is going to have.”
Hazlett said growing pressure on carers, combined with limited emergency respite dementia care options and persistent home care support service gaps, means delaying action is becoming increasingly costly for both families and the health system.
Support for respite review sectorwide
Those concerns are echoed by the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN).
Chief Executive Officer, Craig Gear said OPAN advocates routinely hear from families unable to find or (privately) afford respite, with many reaching crisis before support is available.
“It really should be a core service offering within aged care… it is what keeps people well in the community and keeps carers being able to be part of it.”
The debate around respite is not new. In fact, occupancy pressures are changing the purpose of residential respite, with fewer stays leading to permanent care.
What’s different now is that three national organisations are making the same argument from different perspectives. Countless others across the sector would also likely support considered reform.
The real cost of carer burnout
Carer burnout was never the whole story and now further implications can no longer be ignored.
If caring relationships fail, the costs don’t disappear. They reappear elsewhere through avoidable hospital admissions, earlier residential aged care entry and greater pressure on an already stretched health system.
Once the requested review publishes findings, the question won’t be whether respite is worth investing in. It’ll be whether Australia has spent too long treating one of aged care’s most valuable preventative services as an optional extra.
