Housing and care for older and younger adults with disabilities

Summary

Currently older people with a disability are more likely to live in cared accommodation than in the community. Ageing in place strategies, plus the fact that younger people with a disability are more likely to live in the community, add to the complexity of integrating housing and support services.


Project Number: 60019
Research Theme: Health_Ageing_and_Disability
Project Leader: Bridge, Catherine
Funding Year: 2000
Research Centre: Sydney

Description

Australian governments are recognising the importance of enabling older and younger disabled people to remain in their own homes with good quality of life as an alternative to institutional care. The significance of these issues is accentuated by population ageing, rising expectations amongst consumer groups, and constraints on government expenditure. Achieving positive and efficient outcomes for these people is complicated by the separation of program and funding responsibilities between levels of government and by services being delivered by separate housing, health, and community care agencies. Comprehensive analyses of housing and care have been severely limited because the applied research (as with the programs themselves) has been divided into separate housing and community care studies.

This project aimed to quickly bring to policymakers the best available knowledge to guide policy development and program implementation in this priority area. The first major aim was to provide a national profile and analysis of the housing and care of older and younger adults with disabilities including identification of their present housing circumstances and assistance, use of community services, and met and unmet needs with dwelling maintenance, household responsibilities, and personal care. It also identified systematic variation reflecting State differences in expenditure and service structures and urban location differences indicating effects of housing and employment markets. This analysis was based on the newly available 'unit record' file from the national ABS 1998 Disability, Ageing, and Carers survey including more than 43,000 respondents. The second major aim was to review and critically assess policy and program approaches to better link housing and care programs. This review examined public housing policies (including admissions, allocations, design, and service coordination); community care policies (including home maintenance, gardening, and home modification); and models for improved integration and coordination of housing and care programs. It was based on a comprehensive international literature review; a systematic review of key policy statements; and interviews with more than 40 leading 'players' including Commonwealth and State policymakers.

The research findings aimed to inform action by public housing providers, in facilitating care for the increasing numbers of vulnerable residents, and by community care providers in meeting the housing needs of people in varied accommodation arrangements. The results also provided a basis to consider the implications of major policy issues concerning guidelines in new Commonwealth State Housing Agreement (CSHA) and Housing and Community Care (HACC) frameworks and possibly more federal revenue sharing through block rather than tied grants.