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The Productivity Commission the Caring for Older Australians Inquiry has just been released. MND Australia made submissions to this inquiry highlighting that the crucial issue for people living with MND and their carers is access to planning options and services to address changing and complex needs to ensure their quality of life. A seamless coordinated response from aged, disability and health care services to ensure needs based care should be integral to reforms related to these systems. MND Australia has consistently called for needs based, not aged based, care and support for people living with MND.

In the report The Commission notes the agreement by the Council of Australian Governments that under the National Health and Hospital Network Agreement the Australian Government has agreed to funding specialist disability services provided under the National Disability Agreement for people aged 65 years and over (50 years and over for Indigenous Australians). It also notes that the Productivity Commission Report on Disability Care and Support is pending.

Key recommendations that have potential to improve outcome for people living with MND and their carers include:

• Establish and Australian Seniors Gateway Agency to provide information, assessment of needs and entitlement to care and support services, care coordination and carer referral services
• Replace current discrete care packages with a single system of integrated and flexible care provision to cover services including residential care, community care (domestic, personal, nursing), re-ablement, planned respite, home modification, palliative care, high level aids and equipment, and care coordination
• More flexible respite arrangements to be trialled, such as cashing out respite entitlements and extending the range of approved informal respite providers.
• Promote the expanded use of in-reach services to residential aged care facilities and the development of visiting multidisciplinary aged care health teams.
• A person supported within the disability care system should be able to continue to be supported by the system best able to meet their care needs as they age.
• Older people with disabilities can elect to stay with disability system or transfer to aged care system.
• Ensure that residential and community care providers receive appropriate payments for delivering palliative and end-of-life care.
• Governments should develop a coordinated and integrated national policy approach to providing home maintenance and modification services.
• The Gateway, when assessing the care needs of older people, should also assess the capacity of informal carers to provide ongoing support.