Indigenous aged care service use and need for assistance: how well is policy matching need?

To investigate the effectiveness of the Australian Government's aged care planning framework for Indigenous Australians, particularly the use of a lower planning age of 50 years.

We analysed published data and administrative datasets relating to population demographics, aged care assessments, admissions and usage, need for assistance and expenditure, comparing the Indigenous 50-69 and 70+ age groups with the non-Indigenous 70+ age group.

Indigenous people aged 50-69 years have much lower utilisation, and a different pattern of utilisation, of aged care services than either Indigenous or non-Indigenous people aged 70 and over. Community-based services are much more important for Indigenous than non-Indigenous people, regardless of age.

The planning framework conflates the diverse needs of Indigenous people across a wide age range and does not set a meaningful target for service provision. It has not ensured the right balance of services across geographic areas and between different levels of care.