The shifting market: AIHW gives the Commissioners a crash course in aged care statistics

Louise York, Group Manager of the Community Services Group at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and colleague Mark Stanbury-Cooper did a quick 30-minute snapshot of the sector covering funding, rates of health conditions such as dementia and depression and workforce.

The key takeaways? Home care use grew 84% between 2007 and 2017 while residential care only grew 17%. High care needs and the number of residents aged over 85 continue to grow, as does the number of Personal Care Attendants in residential aged care.

They couldn’t deliver on every figure however. Asked for a breakdown of the numbers of workers in home care by Commissioner Briggs, Mr Cooper-Stanbury said it was “impossible in terms of this data”.

Another anomaly.