Decision Support Tools- Local Government Areas - Assessment Answer

Decision Support Tools Assignment

Case Scenario

You and a group of investors are interested in setting up a chain of aged care homes in a number of Local Government Areas in Australia. In order to do this successfully you need to ensure that the regions you choose will support your business over the next 10 years. Your minimum criteria are:

• enough adults who are likely to need aged care
• these adults have the funds to pay for aged care (how you identify that is up to you but you need to document this criteria)

Assignment Task

Your task is to prepare a report to be presented to your co-investors which identifies two (2) Local Government Areas in Australia which meet your criteria. Your report should demonstrate how these Local Government Areas meet the minimum criteria above and additional criteria which you have identified. You should also identify additional statistical information that is required before a final decision is made to start building the first aged care centre.

Opportunities Aged Care Facilities

There have been increasing demand for aged care facilities especially those that promote the locals. The ministry of health in Australia has endorsed several reports that points out some of the future concerns of health care institutions in Australia. The last five years has seen the reduction of quality care for the aged people while little resources have been channeled to develop the aged care systems in Australia(National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHR)). There have been recommendations that both private investors and the government be encouraged to provide healthcare facilities for the aged people.

In most cases aged care services would always be available within the residential areas. It is through going through the community based aged cares that most of the people find themselves in permanent residential care systems. In addition, residential care offers permanent care and respite care. Initially the Australian government used to offer two levels of low and high care for the aged people living under the permanent care. However, the two levels were scrapped in 2014 raising concerns on the future for the aged care services in the country(O’Reilly). Meanwhile respite care provides short term care for the aged people in their residential aged care facility while supporting them and their cares to continue living at home for as long as possible (Altman and Frist).

According to reliable statistics and data 7.8% of the Australian population are aged 65 years and above and were in residential aged care facilities in 2013-2014. However, only 2.4% of these people were able to receive home care at some point during the same financial year an indication of wide neglect of the aged people in Australia. The following figures indicate the number of residential and home care services offered to aged people in the 2013-2014 financial year.

loser statistics also reveal that during the same financial year 2 in 3 people who were at permanent residential aged care facilities were women accounting for 69% of the total population. Analysts have also projected that there would be 12% increase between 2002-2021 population for the aged people (Joynt and Jha). The major driving factor for this is longer and better living standards hence increasing longevity and declines fertility rates. The figure below indicates the increasing levels of aged care.

The expenditure estimates do not include all Australian or state and territory government expenditure on caring for older people—see notes under Table 1 for inclusions.

The figures indicate that there is need for future planning and acquisition of aged care facilities in order to cater for the increasing population of the aged people. According to the statistics and projections given we are only 5 years away from reaching the year 2021 and indication that there is enough population of aged people that are suffering and require help.

The table below illustrates the expenditure in terms of aged health care in Australia.

From the 2013-2014 financial year it is also evident that out of the 7.8% population of aged people averagely only 3% are able to access the aged care facilities (Beeuwkes and Buntin). It is for this reason that the government has encouraged local and community leaders to come up with aged care facilities to cater for that group of population.

According to the 2013-2014 aged care expenditure in major towns and cities in Australia NSW has the highest expenditure for aged care health services. It is for this reason that NSW becomes our first target location to establish the aged care facilities. NSW recorded 4,176.0 billion in terms of expenditure for the aged people. Our second target location is Victoria. Victoria City recorded 3,251.8 million in terms of expenditure for the same year. It therefore means that since these cities are very populous and are some of the most expensive cities and are also recognized by local government they become the most suitable centers to establish aged care facilities. Queensland also showed massive spending. The city was third in terms of expenditure. A whopping 2,436.8 million were spent either directly or indirectly during the same financial year. Those cities are the top most target areas for provision of aged care. In addition, the three cities have also the largest population of the aged people(Productivity Commission 2015).

Meanwhile, the average rates of expenditure in terms of aged people seems promising it can be projected that the same is likely to increase over the next 10 years considering that the population of the aged people will still continue to rise in the next decade. Other promising cities that are still under feasibility study include West and South Australia whose expenditure during the same year was almost the same. Our two first location will be NSW and Victoria. These places have demonstrated high need to aged care facilities. In addition, the population in the two cities is also high. Moreover, there is more government willingness and support to establish aged care facilities in these two regions. The facilities to be made will be providing residential care services which have the highest demand and also highest revenue in terms of returns.

In conclusion, it is evident that aged care system in Australia does not provide enough services for its people. It has also been projected that the population for aged care people is likely to rise by 12% for the last decade. For that purpose there is need to establish aged care facilities around NSW and Victoria as projections and data indicates that most of the expenditure are done in those two areas. Moreover, the cities have also some of highest living standards and expenditure with high population. That qualifies the two regions to be a starting point considering that the current projection is 10 years investment.