Listen up, Ministers! Long-term policy is non-negotiable

Increasing pressure from numerous stakeholders to create long-term policy for the ageing population, adds weight to Alzheimers NZ’s call for a dementia friendly Aotearoa New Zealand.

There has been a myriad of coverage recently urging Government to consider how to best support the ageing population.

Alzheimers NZ Chief Executive Catherine Hall says this is not a problem for the future – it’s here today and will only becoming increasingly challenging.

The organisation recently held its fourth and final one-day event Repositioning Dementia: What’s next?  which was opened by Associate Minister of Health Hon Casey Costello.

“The fact New Zealand has an ageing population is not surprising.  The fact that dementia mate wareware numbers are increasing as a result should also not be surprising,” Catherine says.

“So, ‘the system’ should have anticipated and planned for what is actually a naturally occurring chain of events.  But it didn’t.”

This sentiment has been echoed by all corners of the sector recently.

New research by Dr Etuini Ma’u, Dr Sarah Cullum and Associate Professor Gary Cheung shows Māori and Pacific communities are most at risk of developing dementia mate wareware because of poverty and material disadvantage.

“I think, at every step of the health system, Māori and Pacific people are drawing the short straw,” Etu told the NZ Herald recently.

“I think we can do a lot to prevent dementia. I think we really need to relook at the way we’re targeting it and I think we really need to be looking at these much more broader population level legislation and policies that increase our ability to live a healthy lifestyle.”

The ageing population is having an increasing impact on Government’s longterm fiscal policy, with Treasury recently announcing something’s got to give. This sentiment was echoed in this recent article on Newsroom.

Treasury’s Chief Economic adviser Dominick Stephens joined Bernard Hickey on the When the facts change podcast to discuss the long-term fiscal issues caused by an ageing population, and what’s at risk if we don’t make policy changes soon.

As we stand, there are two immediate opportunities to make a change for older people’s health – and in turn the ageing population – in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The first is putting a focus on a continumm of care for older people as part of Health NZ’s Aged Care Funding and Service Models Review.

The Aged Care Commissioner released a report earlier this year calling for an integrated continuum of care for older people and investment in public health measures.

Most recently, she was urging decision-makers to consider the unintended consequences of any changes to the funding model for aged care, as reported by RNZ.

The second is taking on board the feedback shared as part of the recent Health Select Committee Inquiry into aged care.

Non-government organisations (NGOs) need to be at the centre of this as highlighted in a new report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.

The report has five priorities to get the health system back on track – including the top priority of funding and resourcing a 21st century model of community-based healthcare.

“We do hope the increasing pressure from the wider sector leads to Government properly thinking through the wider and long-term implications of New Zealand’s ageing population and making appropriate policy decisions for the future,” says Catherine.

“Given all of this, it’s hard to understand why the ageing population is not a priority in the Government Policy Statement on Health. We certainly hope it will be given priority in the next health plan.

“There is some real urgency to this.  We can no longer afford to kick the ageing population can down the road!”