Page 467 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
government has released land for an extra 900 aged care beds in Canberra, with 128 under construction and another 548 to be built over the next two years.
As members will be aware, the Chief Minister has announced that the ACT government has made a gift of a $1.8 million block of land in Griffith to Baptist Community Services for a brand new 160-bed aged care facility. The facility will be built on the site of the former O’Connell Education Centre in Sturt Avenue, just up from the Griffith shops. It will boost the availability of aged care in one of the areas of greatest need: the inner south.
The government has made huge strides in preparing for the changing housing needs of our maturing population. But there is plenty still to do, and this latest gift of land during a week that focuses the attention of the whole of the community on our seniors is just one of the government’s initiatives.
Housing ACT has a strong record in providing accommodation that supports aged tenants with mobility problems. This includes carrying out modifications to existing homes and the construction of purpose-built dwellings. The disabled modification program provides improvements for disabled and aged tenants. This ranges from minor alterations, such as grab rails and lever handles, to major upgrades of kitchens and bathrooms and the provision of access ramps.
A dual occupancy unit is being purchased in Chifley to provide accommodation for two public housing tenants who have mobility issues but who are capable of independent living. As well, the Council on the Ageing (ACT), with support from the ACT government, provides advice to homeowners on mobility improvements for their homes.
Housing ACT is continuously refining the process for planning and delivering modifications for the disabled. This means that more modifications are being undertaken with available funds. For example, in 2005-06, 605 modifications were undertaken, compared with 531 in 2002-03.
The building for our ageing community strategy, which was released in December 2003, contains a broad range of measures aimed at increasing the level of aged care accommodation in the ACT. These include a rolling program, or land bank, of aged persons accommodation development sites, of which several sites have already been identified for release; support and guidance for proponents of aged care accommodation to ensure they can successfully navigate the planning and development process; strong case management to reduce unnecessary delays in the planning process for aged care projects; and a focus on developing a more proactive relationship with the Australian government so that their bed allocations meet the needs of the ACT community and so that the territory can ensure that land, planning and bed allocation processes are streamlined.
The strategy targets the full range of accommodation for older people, from high and low care accommodation, usually referred to as nursing home and hostel accommodation, to independent living units. The strategy is designed to streamline the approval process for developers wishing to build aged care housing in the ACT.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .