Text of Video Message of Minister for Mental Health an Ageing Hon Mark Butler

May 7, 2013 by admin

Good afternoon, and thank you for inviting me to speak to you as you celebrate your annual Jashne Buzurg Festival for the Elderly.

I know that in the Islamic culture the care of one’s elderly parents is considered an honour and a blessing.

And for the Australian Government, people who have contributed to the building of this country in the past deserve to reap the reward for their efforts in their golden years.

That’s why just a year ago the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and I unveiled a new $3.7 billion plan to modernise our aged care system so that it provides the dignity and independence that our elders deserve in later life – regardless of their background.

The package – called Living Longer Living Better – is a 10-year blueprint to establish an aged care system that will serve Australia well in the 21st century.

And the plan will ensure that we have an aged care system that respects culture and difference and gives older people more choice about where and how they receive support and care.

Around 20 per cent of people aged over 65 years were born outside Australia and by 2021 that number will rise to 30 per cent.

Older people from diverse backgrounds often have different cultural, linguistic and spiritual needs which can affect the type of care and services they want and need.

For example, in many cases, the onset of dementia causes older people from CALD backgrounds to lose their English language skills and revert to their first language. Clearly that is a unique challenge for the person affected, for families and for the aged care provider.

The Government is committed to ensuring our new aged care plan provides for the needs of ALL Australians.

As a first step to tackling this, we have released a National Ageing and Aged Care Strategy for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

This Strategy will help us to respond to the needs of the growing number of older people from different cultures with English as a second language.

The Living Longer Living Better package includes a number of policies that will improve the lives of older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as well as their families and carers and commits $24.4 million to begin this work.

Stakeholders and members of the various ethnic communities played a crucial role in identifying the emerging issues to be addressed in the strategy.

The consultation process allowed us to hear at first hand the key challenges, needs and concerns of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and aged care workers.

As a result, we have decided on certain goals to be achieved over the next four years. These include:

– Ensuring the aged care online gateway is culturally and linguistically appropriate through various language and communication services;
– making available grants to expand the Community Visitors Scheme to specifically include older people from diverse backgrounds, thus minimising social isolation; and
– developing, in collaboration with research organisations, a program to support equitable, quality, effective, inclusive and accessible aged care services to culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

This Strategy is a good first step along the road to ensuring older Australians from diverse backgrounds have the same opportunities and choices in aged care as everyone else.

But in getting this far, we relied on the enthusiastic support of many stakeholders, communities and individuals.

And to ensure that continues, only last week, to support the Strategy I launched the CALD Aged Care Network with the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia – a web-based communication network for people and organisations involved in the culturally and linguistically diverse ageing sector.

The network will be used to build the capacity of CALD organisations, bringing together services involved with the many and diverse ethnic communities.

But it can also be used to ensure the many ethnic communities and their organisations remain connected to the policy developments and funding rounds that will be rolled out under our new aged care plan.

I would encourage you to connect with the new network because we need the input of all our community groups committed to better support for our elders in their later years.

Evidence shows that people who are healthy and physically active throughout their lives, especially as they age, have a better quality of life in their older years.

Remaining connected with your community is a key part of staying healthy and active as you age – and, it is recognised that through groups such as the South Asian Muslim Association of Australia and events such as today’s, communities are given the opportunity to support each other, feel connected and celebrate the role and value of older people.

Thank you for allowing me to share our plans with you. I wish you a successful Jashne Buzurg Festival.