CDHB Outlines Plans For Supporting Older People To Stay In Their Homes

The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) today met with aged residential care providers from across the region to explain its plans to offer increased support to help older people to stay in their homes.

Although residential care will continue to be an important option for older people who are unable to remain at home, the CDHB is planning to focus more closely on its provision of home-based support services for older people to ensure they have the opportunity to remain at home until they need residential care.

The increased emphasis on these services is part of a long term strategy to support older people to retain their independence for as long as possible. It is also part of ensuring that the level of CDHB funding for provision of aged residential care is in line with what is provided by other district health boards and is financially sustainable in the long term.

To ensure older people are getting the right support, the CDHB will be improving the way it assesses older people who are referred to its service by General Practices or after a hospital stay. Its community service teams will also work more closely with older people and their families to explain the criteria around eligibility for residential care and to explore the most suitable option for them.

All older people will be regularly reviewed to ensure services are tailored and adjusted to ensure their needs are being met.

CDHB General Manager Planning and Funding Carolyn Gullery said the aim was to give a greater number of older people the ability to remain at home in the community. As the average age of the Canterbury population continues to increase, she said it will be important for the CDHB to ensure the right mix of services are in place to support older people.

She told residential care providers at the meeting that, despite the move to encourage more people to stay at home, the service they provide will continue to be an important part of a range of options to ensure older people are well supported.

“We are not reducing the amount of funding we allocate to aged residential care. Instead we are ensuring that we look at all the ways in which we can help to support older people to remain independent for as long as possible,” she said.

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