By Mikayla van Loon
The services Yarra Ranges Council delivers for its ageing residents will again be altered as reforms filter down from the Federal government.
The Australian government’s Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) which has provided local councils with funding since 2015 to provide in-home care and other support has been given an overhaul after the Royal Commission into Aged Care.
Having already ended some services like at-home maintenance, Yarra Ranges Council proposed to cease the delivery of transport, meals and social support group services by July 2024.
“It has come to a time where we have to identify that it’s no longer viable for the council to provide those services that we have historically provided,” Councillor Sophie Todorov said at the Tuesday 24 October council meeting.
“We’ve been a council that has always provided proactive service to our ageing population over many, many years to support healthy ageing, social inclusion and connection.”
Community support manager Guy Masters said with more providers, particularly meals on wheels type services, flooding the market, there comes a time of reassessment.
“When there’s other providers available in the municipality or near to the municipality that can provide them, you have to ask the question, is this the best use of ratepayer money to provide these services?” he said.
As a receiver of meals on wheels for over two years, Yarra Glen resident Noel Buchanon said it was concerning to hear the council was considering removing this as one of its services.
“Most human beings, men and women, as they age do begin to experience a preference for the familiar,” he said.
“When you hear in a two page letter that this is all changing, I suggest, many older people begin to worry.”
Having been put onto meals on wheels as a recommendation from his doctor, Mr Buchanon said “you gain so much in physical and emotional and mental health”.
Mr Buchanon receives four meals per week, delivered on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with one meal to be consumed over the weekend.
Not only has the catered food been a blessing but so too has the social connection and friendship he has made with his delivery driver.
“The principal volunteer who has delivered the majority of meals for more than two years to my address, he and I have become good friends.
“I don’t see him socially or in any other activity outside of meals on wheels but being two gentlemen within a few years of one another, he is a couple years older than me, we find lots to talk about and lots of common interest.
“The fact he takes the time to say a proper hello every morning with every client and he notices detail so that if you were looking pale, or you appeared with vomit all over your clothing, he would know something is amiss…that’s the welfare value I greatly appreciate.”
It is expected the meals on wheels service will be handed over to a not-for-profit organisation chosen by the Federal government, of which Mr Masters said the council is putting forward a request to utilise Future Fit, a meal delivery service currently operating in Whitehorse.
Cr Todorov said she was initially quite concerned herself about handing over the meal delivery function of the council to another provider but an information session calmed her worries.
“I was a bit concerned about [because] it’s not just providing meals, it’s also that social connection that a lot of ageing people vitally need as well,” she said.
“I felt really reassured after having those discussions in that session that we will be able to hand over to the Future Fit network, funded by the Federal government, to provide meals and have that service at least three times a week and to offer social connection to clients as well and allowing them to have that quality time.
“It was also reassuring to hear that they propose to use our existing volunteers but also look at using future local residents as well as volunteers making sure those relationships are maintained.”
With the transition set to happen over the next eight months, Mr Buchanon said his only hope is that meal quality remains the same.
“I’m hoping the freshness and variety of the food stays at the same standard or goes even higher, but certainly no deterioration,” he said.
Aged friendly communities executive officer Simone Marais said there is an opportunity for the same food producer to be used so menu options would remain the same, as well as further options at different price points.
“At Yarra Ranges we’re very passionate about our meals on wheels service and I don’t think we’d even be really even considering this recommendation if we didn’t have confidence that this is sustainable into the future,” she said.
It was, however, for the menu options that Cr Len Cox could not vote to approve the motion to suspend the council’s delivery of meal delivery and transport services.
With a shift away from the delivery of services, Mr Masters said the council can redirect its focus on advocating for better outcomes for elderly residents by helping tackle ageism and elder abuse, as well as guide people through systems like My Aged Care.
“We hear a lot from residents that they have difficulty understanding or working their way through the My Aged Care system,” he said.
“So we’ve got a small team that’s available to provide support and advice to either elderly residents or often very commonly their family members who are trying to start the process of accessing services.”
“We’re fortunate now that we see an over $800,000 budget where we can establish those ageing well hubs to provide information and navigation to support that demographic of the community,” Cr Todorov said.
Consultation with the community will also be conducted over the next eight months to understand where the community would like to see the budget for ageing utilised.
“There’ll be some significant engagement with the community to talk to them about what is it that will help you age in place because we know the theory, we know the kinds of things that all the evidence says this is what you need, what we don’t know is what our residents want,” Mr Masters said.
An alternate motion was unanimously carried to cease meals and social group support but to consider transport options for the council to provide.
