Our cultural diversity has most certainly shaped our national character. |
Prevention is one of the few known ways to reduce demand for health and aged care services. |
Prevention is the key. |
Synergy and serendipity often play a big part in medical and scientific advances. |
This approach reflects the fact that ageing issues will affect every member of the national community, old and young alike. |
Today it has been estimated that the average 70 year old has four chronic conditions and consumes an average of 35 PBS scripts per year for those conditions. |
We are already seeing older people wanting greater choice in how, when and where they receive care. |
We have a decreasing birthrate, although there are attempts to stem that trend, and we have an increasing life expectancy. |
We have, after all, an ageing population, and dementia is generally a condition of ageing, in that the risk increases with age. |
We know that so many of the conditions and diseases that we associate with ageing can often be prevented or in fact their onset delayed if we just took preventative steps earlier in our lives. |
We know we are entering a period of transformation in aged care. |
We preserve the status quo, preserve existing systems. |
We were stuck. We couldn't do anything. |
When the Australian Government looked at how to meet the challenges, and the opportunities, presented by our ageing population, it saw that an all-encompassing approach was a prerequisite. |