The Federal Government has announced $10.2 million in funding for 26 projects to better prepare the aged care workforce to cater for increased demand.

 

Federal Minister for Ageing, Mark Butler, said the projects would tackle many of the challenges faced by aged care workers, including the delivery of medications, helping patients to live healthy, active lifestyles, and support people with complex needs. 



“As part of upskilling workers and job redesign, many of the projects will train workers who support aged care residents in roles such as nutrition, cleaning, personal care and physio to identify health and wellbeing issues early.” 



“By 2050 we expect that more than 1 in 20 working Australians will be an aged care worker, we need these workers to be as highly skilled as possible.” 



The projects will focus on better integrating the aged care workforce with mainstream community services like GPs, pharmacists and allied health professionals across four main areas:

  • safe medication management in the community
  • residential aged care
  • preventing functional decline in the community
  • complex care coordination in the community.