Integrating housing, support and care for older people: a national and international analysis
Summary
The term service integrated housing was developed to describe the various forms of purpose built housing for older people where the housing provider also delivers, or arranges for the delivery of support and care services. It is identified as a third component of aged care in Australia, intermediate between community care and residential care, and overlapping with both these components. Many service integrated housing providers, in both the community and private sectors, are also involved in these other programs, and a large part of the service component is drawn from the Home and Community Care program and community care package programs. Retirement villages are the main form of service integrated housing in Australia. At the 2006 Census, some 130 000 older Australians lived in retirement villages, and when other forms are added, the scale of this part of the sector is comparable to residential aged care (with 167 000 residents as of 2006). Australian experience has much in common with developments in the UK, US and Western European countries, once differences in terminology are taken into account.
Project Number: 20287
Research Theme: Health_Ageing_and_Disability
Project Leader: Jones, Andrew
Funding Year: 2004
Research Centre: Queensland
Research & Policy Bulletin
Issue 130: Housing, support and care for older Australians: the role of service integrated housing
Forms of service integrated housing-such as retirement villages—have been developed by the community and private sectors to provide housing, support and care for older people in Australia. Is there a need for a more hands-on role for government in directing, shaping and expanding service integrated housing?
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Description
The aim of this proposal is to identify, describe, classify and evaluate the full range of program options for integrating housing, support and care for older Australians. The importance of enabling older people to live independently has been long recognised in Australian social policy. However, insufficient policy attention has been paid to the ‘housing’ dimension of community care and to linked housing, support and care services.
It is recognised internationally that housing is the essential foundation for community care. However, in Australia there has been a tendency for housing and aged care to develop as separate, distinct policy and service systems. Initiatives in linking these systems have tended to be ad hoc, with little systematic policy integration. The importance of an integrated policy approach has become more pressing during the past decade. Population ageing means that the number of older persons requiring linked housing, support and care is steadily increasing.
There is a need to develop evidence-based policies that facilitate the development of a flexible range of housing types and associated support and care services to enable older Australians to maximise capacity for independent living. The proposed research will provide an evidence base to underpin development of integrated housing, support and care policies and programs during the next decade. It will be undertaken via a desk-based systematic review of the relevant international and Australian literature, supplemented by exemplar case studies.
Research outcomes will include a conceptual framework to classify and evaluate linked housing, support and care arrangements for older people; a detailed review of relevant programs described in the international policy and research literature; a similar review of programs described in the Australian literature, supplemented by case studies of exemplar programs; and an analysis of the policy relevance of the findings. The project will provide a research foundation for consideration of new policy directions in provision, subsidy, support and regulation of linked housing, support and care arrangements, and an impetus to new partnerships between housing and aged care authorities.
More Information
Positioning Paper: No. 108: Integrated housing, support and care for people in later life
597 Kb PDF Document
Final Report: No. 141: Service integrated housing for Australians in later life
863 KB PDF Document
Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 130: Housing, support and care for older Australians: the role of service integrated housing
326 KB PDF Document
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