Agenda

Day One: – Wednesday 28th September 2011

DAY ONE | DAY TWO

8.30 Refreshments

8.50 Opening remarks from the Chair

9.00 What are we doing to prepare for population change?

• The pressures of an ageing population on healthcare funding
• Redesigning sustainable healthcare to improve quality of life
• The use of technology in developing a sustainable health system
• Redesigning work environments to address the decreasing work participation rate

George Savvides, Managing Director, Medibank Private

9.40 Demographics

• Population ageing: Projections of the number and living arrangements of older Australians over the next 20 years
• What assistance do older Australians who live alone need in their everyday lives, and how are these needs being met?
• Growing old together: Care givers and care receivers in the older Australian population
• A summary of trends from newly released ABS data, including income and housing

Steve Gelsi, Assistant Director, Australian Bureau of Statistics

10.20 Morning tea

Healthcare Funding

10.40 Aged care funding

• Distribution of aged care funding between Commonwealth and care recipients
• Implications for risk borne by care recipients
• Adequacy and security of funding for aged care providers

Professor Henry Ergas, Senior Economic Adviser, Deloitte

11.20 Australia’s three pillars of retirement income: The age pension, superannuation and voluntary private investments and savings

• Is the pension providing an adequate standard of living?
• Recent changes to the pension and to superannuation: What improvements have they brought or will they bring? Who will they benefit or hurt?
• Comparing the costs of the Age Pension and superannuation: What changes could be brought in to make a truly equitable and beneficial system?
• The consequences of policy in / action on other social payments and in other policy fields. Its role to ensuring people adequate income in retirement

Antoine Mangion, Policy and Research Officer, Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association of NSW (CPSA)

12.00 Lunch

1.00 PANEL DISCUSSION
Managing an ageing workforce: Preparing for the silver tsunami

• Is it good business sense to invest in experience?
• Reasons for encouraging mature workers to stay within the business Addressing continued skill shortage and changing labour markets
• Tackling age discrimination on the grounds of age and care responsibilities and flexible workplace practices
• Outlining the key issues and strategies in providing a safe and healthy workforce for mature workers

Antoine Mangion, Policy and Research Officer, Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association of NSW (CPSA)
Dr Susan Feldman, Associate Professor, Director Healthy Ageing Research Unit (HARU), Primary Care Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University
Peter Matwijiw, GM, National Policy Office and Productive Ageing Centre, National Seniors Australia

1.40 Are we living longer and healthier? The compression of morbidity debate

• The state of the evidence for living longer and healthier
• The big picture perspectives on ‘Compression on Morbidity’
• The policy and clinical implications of the compression debate
• The big issue for future healthy ageing

Professor John McCallum, Executive Director, NHMRC

2.20 The art of ageing well and caring for ageing adults

• Psychosocial issues facing men and women from multicultural backgrounds
• Looking at preventative programs when people are not elderly, i.e. before pensioner age, that will have benefits longer term
• The benefits of effective and strategic health and wellness programs for older people with early detection of dementia

Dr Susan Feldman, Associate Professor, Director Healthy Ageing Research Unit (HARU), Primary Care Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University

3.00 Afternoon tea

3.20 Liveable communities - International perspectives into local action under the NSW whole-of-government population ageing strategy

• The NSW whole-of-government population ageing strategy
• Action by local government with urban, regional and remote communities under the NSW whole-of-government population ageing strategy

4.00 End of day one

DAY TWO: Thursday 29th September 2011

DAY ONE | DAY TWO

8.30 Refreshments
8.50 Opening remarks from the Chair

Mental health in the ageing population

9.00 Misunderstanding dementia: Key challenges for the aged care work force in the management of people with advanced dementia

• Dementia: Addressing the third biggest killer of all Australians
• Dementia as a terminal condition and what this means for care provision
• What is the capacity of the aged care workforce to effectively support people with dementia
• Strategies to develop evidence based care for people with advanced dementia resident in aged care facilities

Andrew Robinson, Professor of Aged Care Nursing, School Of Nursing and Midwifery, Co-Director, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, Menzies Research Institute, Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania

9.40 Dementia, longevity and quality of life

• Addressing changing patterns of disease that will be associated with increased life expectancy
• The economic and social impact of dementia
• A comprehensive funded strategy to address dementia

Dr Ellen Skladzien, National Policy Manager, Alzheimer’s Australia

10.20 Morning tea

10.40 International Keynote
Improved technology and innovation to help the elderly

• How to live longer and stay healthier? The challenging clinical needs posed by a rapidly ageing population
• Examples of innovations in nanotechnology and other enabling and advanced technologies that can improve the treatment, care and independence of older people
• Integrating and networking solutions to provide more effective and better targeted care and support
• E-Health: Opportunities and challenges
• How will we afford it? Is there an opportunity for technology to reduce costs? Will there be equity in access to solutions?
• The long term view… where should technology lead us? Do we need new policies?

Richard Moore, Scientific Director, Institute of Nanotechnology, UK

11.20 How well are consumers and providers prepared for greater choice in aged care?
The Productivity Commission Report proposes aged care reform centred on greater consumer choice and the move to more of a market-based system

• How is the aged care industry adapting to a greater ‘consumer choice’ model?
• Consumers will need to prepare for their frail years in the same way they plan for retirement
• Aged care must become a ‘standing discussion item’ at the family dinner table – It is not just an older persons issue any more
• Aged care reform: On the political radar given the Gillard Government commitment to aged care as a ‘second term’ priority
• What would the move to a ‘consumer choice–entitlement model’ really mean for consumers and the aged care industry? Without a viable industry consumers will not benefit from greater choice

Gerard Mansour, CEO, Aged & Community Care Victoria

12.00 Lunch

Improved care, wellness and culture

1.00 Issues and innovation in care services for the aged of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background

• Acknowledging older people of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background and the provision of equitable access to care
• Communication issues and language barriers for the aged with minimal English; Appropriate service responses
• An innovative model of service delivery which provides linkage, advocacy and service system navigation
• Possible implications of the reform in aged care following the Productivity Commission Inquiry into aged care

Angelika Tyrone, Manager, Ethnic Link Services, Uniting Care Wesley Port Adelaide Inc

1.30 Management of communication in aged care services

• Role of bilingual staff in aged care
• Highlighting the importance of online multicultural resources with a growing culturally and linguistically diverse ageing population
• The implications of underutilisation of language services

Ljubica Petrov, Manager, Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing

2.00 Early and effective rehabilitation in the aged care sector

• The role of the rehabilitation in positive ageing
• The importance of rehabilitation services in the aged care system
• Effective community-based models of rehabilitation care
• Developing the rehabilitation workforce to meet growing need
• Sustainable funding options for delivering rehabilitation care

Associate Professor Christopher Poulos, Hammond Chair of Positive Ageing and Care, University of NSW

Workforce planning for ageing Australia

2.30 Staffing of care givers in the healthcare workforce

• Is there enough emphasis on the problem of staffing numbers and the resident ratio in aged care facilities as well as that issue of the poor wages that are being paid to caring staff?
• Contributing factors for sustainable nursing wage structures
• Tackling the absence of a mechanism for the delivery of fair and competitive wages
• A balancing act: Addressing the conflicting interests and challenges of nurses and aged care residents and the interests of those running the aged care facilities for profit

Lee Thomas, Federal Secretary, Australian Nursing Federation

3.00 Afternoon tea

3.20 Housing and older people

• Assessing overseas housing trends within local communities and offering the choice of lifestyle tailored to the ageing population
• Developing flexible service models that provide choice and promote quality of life
• Redefining affordable housing within livable communities and age friendly cities with a consumer directed focus
• Development in intergenerational programs and services

Roland Naufal, Director & Collette Naufal, Project Officer, 4C Living Well

4.00 Infrastructure planning for the ageing population

• Achieving accessible regional and urban environments for the ageing community
• Providing infrastructure to support ageing in place
• Mix of public and private for infrastructure, who will fund this?
• Infrastructure planning: Transport, housing

4.40 End of day two