Geriatrics, Gerontology & Elderly Care

With a diverse multicultural community, Australia now faces an increasing demand on aged care services that are tailored to those from culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) groups. While previous approaches have been very successful for a number of larger ethnic communities, including those of Italian and Greek origin, it has not proven successful for communities with much smaller populations residing in Australia. As a result, Australia now sees increasing pressure from an increasing number of smaller CALD groups to establish aged care homes to provide targeted services for their particular communities. This presentation will explore how Australia has addressed this challenge on a national level through mainstream services since the introduction of the Aged Care Act 1997 and will discuss how this approach will now change under the new Consumer Directed Care model being introduced on 1 July 2019.