More face-to-face help to access aged care

The aged care royal commission wants older people and their families to get much better information and more in-person assistance, given many struggle with the telephone and internet-based entry service.

The entry point into the aged care system would shift to primarily face-to-face support, backed by a website and call centre.

The federal health department agrees there should be more support for people to understand and navigate the system.

"There's no doubt that aged care as a whole needs to have a much greater face-to-face presence, and that has to take a number of forms," senior departmental official Nicholas Hartland told the royal commission on Monday.

The University of Technology Sydney's Professor Mike Woods said in-person support was vital.

"The face-to-face navigation role is absolutely fundamental and will solve a lot of problems where people just get lost in the system and therefore drop out (because) it's too hard," he told the Adelaide hearing.

National Seniors Australia CEO John McCallum said face-to-face support was important but it should not be the only source of information in a digital world.

"We are designing a system for the future," he said.

The royal commission's interim report labelled the telephone and internet-based My Aged Care entry system a costly exercise that had failed to provide adequate information about what was available and how to access it.

A health department submission said the government was considering the important role of assessors in providing initial face-to-face contact for older people.

It noted the government was also funding a number of trials that had a strong focus on face-to-face support to help people better understand and navigate the system.

The royal commission is holding a two-day hearing about various aspects of a proposed redesign of the aged care system, which its interim report found is failing and needs fundamental reform.

Australian Associated Press