Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I would like to ask you some questions in relation to aged care and mental health for young people in my electorate of Mayo. In relation to aged care services, I would like to ask some questions in relation to the Commonwealth Home Support Program. My understanding is that the first step to access this program is through the My Aged Care website and a call centre that acts as a screening gateway.

Are the call centre operators required to have qualifications and experience in aged care and, if not, how are they suitably qualified to assess eligibility? Previously, as you are aware, eligibility for this program was determined by the local level, with a site visit from a local provider. Now an applicant must go through a screening gateway and is deemed eligible or not through an arms-length process. For many older people it is quite hard to articulate their needs over the phone.

If this process assesses them to be eligible, my understanding is that a site visit is conducted by a regional assessment service; however, they also have a large geographic area to cover, particularly in my electorate. Then the client is referred to their local service provider, who must also conduct a site visit before a service can be put in place. So one site visit holistic assessment has now been replaced by a gateway assessment, via telephone, with two site visits carried out by two different organisations, sometimes for a service as simple as a once-off gutter clean.

Can the minister explain why this level of complexity has been introduced, how many people in total have applied for this service since the introduction of the online gateway and how many have been deemed eligible or not eligible? Would the minister also please advise, through her department, whether they are considering alternatives to the screening gateway, because the online gateway and call centre frequently acts as a barrier for older people who should be eligible for these low level support services? It is a barrier for them to stay safely living in their community. I would also like to ask the minister what sort of wait times elderly people are experiencing between their first call and receiving a service and whether those wait times have increased since the introduction of this service.

In relation to mental health, I have been advocating very strongly for a headspace in my electorate of Mayo. My understanding is that there will be some sort of outreach service delivered shortly in Mayo. Would the minister please advise me what that looks like, how many young people it is expected to support and whether it will allow a proper outreach that will go down the peninsula, considering I have 9,300 square kilometres with no youth mental health specialists, such as headspace?

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