Ageing and Adult Safeguarding Act 1995 (DHW 2023-24 Annual Report)

Part 2 - Office for Ageing Well

11 – Annual Report

  1. The Director must, on or before 31 October in each year, report to the Minister on the operations of the Office for Ageing Well during the preceding financial year.
  2. The Minister must, within 6 sitting days after receiving a report from the Director, have copies of the report laid before both Houses of Parliament.

Part 3 - Adult Safeguarding Unit

17- Annual Report

  1. The Director must, on or before 31 October in each year, report to the Minister on the operations of the Adult Safeguarding Unit during the preceding financial year.
  2. The Minister must, within 6 sitting days after receiving a report under this section, have copies of the report laid before both Houses of Parliament.
  3. A report under this section may be combined with the annual report of the Office for Ageing Well under section 11.

Office for Ageing Well, established under the Ageing and Adult Safeguarding Act 1995 (AAS Act), was situated within the Department for Health and Wellbeing until 30 June 2024. As a result of a Machinery of Government change, from 1 July 2024, Office for Ageing Well will form part of Department for Human Services.

Under the AAS Act, the Office for Ageing Well’s objectives include:

  • supporting South Australians of all ages to age well, unencumbered by stigma and discrimination;
  • achieving proper integration of older persons within the community thus ensuring that the skills and experience of older people are not lost to the community through social alienation;
  • creating social structures in which older people can realise their full potential as individuals and as members of the community;
  • creating a social ethos in which older people are accorded the dignity, appreciation and respect that properly belong to them;
  • ensuring the multicultural nature of the community is reflected in the planning and implementation of programs and services relevant to older people;
  • achieving a proper understanding within the community of the problems affecting older people and vulnerable adults and ameliorating those problems so far as it is practicable to do so by modification of social structures and attitudes.

To achieve its objectives, Office for Ageing Well led the development of policies and delivered programs, projects and services during 2023-24, in partnership with a diverse range of stakeholders and in line with the priorities of the South Australian Government’s ageing well agenda and shaped directly by the voices of older South Australians.

To achieve the Act’s objectives, Office for Ageing Well is comprised of the following business units and programs:

  • Adult Safeguarding Unit
  • Ageing Policy Unit
  • Aged Care Strategy Unit
  • Aged Care Assessment Program
  • Seniors Card Program
  • Ageing Well Community and Research Grants Programs
  • Retirement Villages Unit
  • Operational Policy and Community Engagement.

During 2023-24, the Office for Ageing Well continued to implement recommendations of the independent statutory review of the Ageing and Adult Safeguarding Act 1995 conducted by the South Australian Law Reform Institute.

  • A draft bill has been prepared to amend the Ageing and Adult Safeguarding Act 1995 to give effect to recommendations of the statutory review that require legislative amendment. Targeted consultation on the draft amendment bill is planned for later in 2024, prior to the introduction of the amendment bill into State Parliament.
  • Office for Ageing Well also implemented recommendations and findings of the review through strengthening policy, practice and training requirements for the Adult Safeguarding Unit.

Adult Safeguarding Unit

The Adult Safeguarding Unit (Unit) is established under the Ageing and Adult Safeguarding Act 1995 (AAS Act).

Key functions of the Unit are to:

  • Provide confidential information and advice to people concerned about themselves or someone else who may be vulnerable and experiencing abuse or mistreatment.
  • Respond to reports of suspected or actual abuse of adults who may be vulnerable by reason of age, disability, ill health, social isolation, dependence on others or other disadvantage.
  • Provide support to safeguard the rights of adults experiencing abuse, tailored to their needs, wishes and circumstances.
  • Raise community awareness about the service and strategies to safeguard the rights of adults who may be at risk of abuse.

In 2023-24, the Unit continued its strong focus on promoting and safeguarding the rights of adults who may be vulnerable and experiencing abuse or mistreatment by working with the adult and any existing supports to implement safeguarding actions, tailored to their needs, wishes and circumstances.

In response to an increase in service demand, the Unit implemented a refined service model to triage reports into two streams: Intake and Early Resolution and Complex Safeguarding. In cases identified for early resolution, the Unit works collaboratively with service providers and community members to build their capacity in implementing safeguarding responses. In cases identified for complex safeguarding, the Unit provides a higher level of support to fill gaps in safeguarding the adult and managing associated risks.

Responding to reports of abuse or mistreatment

Under the AAS Act, the Unit must assess all reports of abuse received and then take one of three prescribed actions. When assessing reports of abuse, the Unit obtains as much information as possible about the situation to determine whether to refer the matter to a more appropriate agency for response; investigate the situation further; or close the matter for no further action. In most situations, the adult’s consent is required before any further action can be taken.

Reporting abuse to the Unit is voluntary. The Unit has a dedicated phone line for the public to seek confidential information, advice and support, or to make reports of suspected abuse or mistreatment of adults who may be vulnerable. The Unit can also take reports via an online report form.

Of the 3,356 contacts received by the Unit in 2023-24:

  • Almost half of the contacts, 48.6 per cent (1,630 contacts) resulted in a report to the Unit, and the remaining 51.4 per cent (1,726 contacts) seeking information and advice.
  • 58.9 per cent of all contacts (1,976) were related to concerns of abuse of adults over 65; 27.4 per cent (920 contacts) were related to adults living with disability; and 4.0 per cent (133 contacts) concerned adults with other vulnerabilities. Insufficient information was provided for the remaining 9.7 per cent (327 enquiries) to determine a category.
  • Over half of all contacts to the Unit (56.2 per cent) were made by service providers, followed by immediate family members (12.3 per cent).
  • The most commonly reported types of abuse were psychological/emotional (38.0 per cent), financial or exploitation (33.7 per cent), and neglect (19.7 per cent).Adult sons and daughters were most often identified as the person of concern in relation to the abuse (37.3 per cent), followed by husbands/wives/partners (16.5 per cent) and father/mother/both parents (10.6 per cent).

During 2023-24, the Unit:

  • Closed 1490 reports for no further action following an assessment.
  • Closed 160 reports following the completion of an investigation.

Most often, when reports were closed following assessment, the Unit determined that the adult’s situation was being appropriately managed/safeguarded by other parties. In other instances, the Unit provided the adult or relevant others with advice or support to strengthen safeguarding arrangements and reduce risks to the adult and/or situation, enabling the case to be closed. Other reasons for closure following assessment included the Unit not identifying any abuse or the adult denying abuse concerns.

In many cases, due to the comprehensive work of the Unit during the assessment phase, progressing the case to investigation was not necessary. Gathering information during assessment is an interactive process, and usually involves detailed discussion with the adult and consideration of their situation. Solutions were identified and safeguarding actions were implemented by either the adult themselves, with support from the Unit, or others involved in their lives. To mitigate risk and ensure the best outcomes for the adult, the Unit often takes a non-linear approach, commonly undertaking safeguarding actions concurrently with the assessment process.

Where investigations are undertaken by the Unit, the outcome is for targeted safeguarding actions to be identified and implemented by the Unit and others in respect of the adult. In 2023-24, examples of targeted actions undertaken as a result of an investigation included the provision of education and advice, supporting other agencies to safeguard the adult, co-ordinating a multi-agency response, advocacy, safety planning and increasing an adult’s access to funded support services such as NDIS or My Aged Care.

There are a range of organisations in South Australia offering services, supports and interventions to help stop abuse from occurring and restore people’s right to safety, respect and self-determination. Referrals to such organisations are an important component of the work undertaken by the Adult Safeguarding Unit to safeguard an adult vulnerable to abuse and, in 2023-24, the Unit made many referrals to a broad range of agencies during and following an assessment of a report. Whilst section 25 of the Act provides that a Director may refer a matter or part of a matter to a State authority or other specified person or body, this provision was not used in 2023-24 as all referrals were able to be made via the receiving organisation’s established referral pathway.

Generally, the Unit does not take action in respect of a report of abuse unless the adult to whom the report relates consents to the action being taken. In 2023-24, there were 32 occasions where the Director approved the Unit to take action without consent under section 24 of the Act. In most cases, this was where the person had impaired decision-making capacity in respect of a decision to consent to the Unit undertaking safeguarding actions on their behalf.

Community education and awareness

In 2023-24, the Unit delivered 57 education sessions and participated in a variety of community events. These functions and events were attended by diverse stakeholders and community groups, including older people and people with a disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The Unit’s community education focuses on raising awareness of abuse prevention strategies, building community capacity to respond to abuse and mistreatment, and providing information about the Unit, including how to contact the Unit and the role it plays in safeguarding rights.

The Unit also engaged with stakeholders at a strategic level to foster new and existing partnerships. These engagements were focussed on developing or improving working arrangements to ensure a coordinated response to safeguarding the rights of adults across the state.

Ageing Policy Unit

South Australia’s Plan for Ageing Well 2020-2025 (the Plan) guides the work of the Ageing Policy Unit through its vision and strategic priorities for ageing well for all South Australians.

In 2023-24, the Ageing Policy Unit directly funded, managed or collaborated on 59 projects, in partnership with a broad range of stakeholders from government, non-government and community sectors, focussed on the Plan’s strategic priorities of Home and community; Meaningful connections; and Navigating change. This included:

  • Continuing its partnership on the Advance Care Directives project with Health Services Programs (Department for Health and Wellbeing) and a range of councils to deliver sustainable community peer-led models to increase the completion of Advance Care Directives.
  • Launching Future Directions to Safeguard the Rights of Older South Australians 2023-2027, informed by statewide consultation with more than 2400 older people and stakeholders. This sets out the statewide policy direction for prevention, awareness and response of abuse and mistreatment of older people.
  • Continuing the statewide Elder Abuse Prevention Tackling Ageism public awareness campaign, which ran from 9 June until 28 July 2024 via digital and social media, metropolitan and regional radio, press, and WeekendPlus – the Seniors Card digital magazine. The campaign aims to raise community awareness that ageism takes away older people’s rights and can lead to abuse or mistreatment.
  • Engaging Clear Horizon Consulting through a limited market approach to undertake the Final Impact Review of South Australia’s Plan for Ageing Well 2020-2025 and Statewide Conversations project. This work will run through to September 2025 and will involve older people, communities and other stakeholders and will inform the development of the next state ageing plan and associated policies.
  • Launching South Australia’s inaugural Week of Ageing Well – on 1-7 October 2023 to align with International Day of Older Persons on 1 October. The week is promoted as “a time to connect with each other, celebrate life, value the older people in our lives, and discover new ways we can all age well.” Fourteen community organisations registered to hold an event as part of the Week of Ageing Well 2023 and in 2024 a media agency will be engaged to develop a paid promotional campaign.
  • Working with Wardliparingga Aboriginal Health Equity Unit at South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute to engage with Aboriginal communities and stakeholder organisations across the state to determine Aboriginal Ageing Well research priorities and an Aboriginal Ageing Well Roadmap.
  • Promoting and protecting the rights of older people who identify as LGBTI+ through:
    • Festival for the Future – a project with the Equality Project to connect older people and others who identify as LGBTI+ across generations and with services and supports.
    • Rainbow Rights – a project with COTA SA to help older people who identify as LGBTI+ to understand and action their rights.
  • Continuing to provide recurrent grants to eight non-government organisations to support safeguarding the rights of older South Australians and ageing well. In 2023-2024, programs included:
    • Ageing Well Peak Body Program - with COTA SA to raise awareness about ageing well and safeguarding the rights of older people, and enable older South Australians, particularly from LGBTI+ and regional communities, to be active and engaged in their communities.
    • Safeguards for Ageing Well Program – with Aged Rights Advocacy Service to raise awareness and build community understanding about safeguarding the rights of older South Australians, including a specific focus on older Aboriginal people, Elders and communities.
    • Ageing Well in CALD Communities program – partnering with six CALD organisations to deliver education and awareness-raising activities focused on safeguarding the rights of older people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Aged Care Strategy Unit

The Aged Care Strategy Unit administers the Aged Care Assessment Program (ACAP) in South Australia on behalf of the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care. The ACAP comprehensively assesses the needs of older people to enable access to Commonwealth Government funded aged care services.

South Australia’s ACAP performed well against required timelines and quality indicators in 2023-24, exceeding multiple National Key Performance Indicator targets set by the Commonwealth.

South Australia continues to achieve strong performance in the completion of assessments across all settings, completing over 18,500 assessments during 2023-24, which is an increase of over 1500 assessments from the previous financial year.

Quality reporting requirements, including the self-auditing of ACAP program assessors’ performance, have shown an average score of 10 percent higher than the Commonwealth benchmark. While client satisfaction surveys continue to show high levels of client service experience, with an average approval rate of 97 percent across all clients assessed in South Australia.

The Aged Care Strategy Unit is supporting the Commonwealth’s aged care reform agenda, including reviewing the delivery of assessment services in South Australia and preparing for the upcoming single assessment system to ensure that older South Australians can access aged care services at the right place and right time for person centred care. This included:

  • A successful waitlist project coordinated between Aged Care Strategy and the LHNs delivering the ACAT programs to reduce wait times for ACAT assessments for older South Australians. This project saw the reduction of approximately 2000 ACAT referrals waiting for assessment in December 2023 to only 46 as at 30 June 2024. 
  • Service readiness of all LHN ACAT teams to prepare for upcoming aged care reforms including a new assessment tool and service delivery processes and efficiencies.

The Aged Care Strategy Unit also provided program management for the Commonwealth’s Specialised Dementia Care Program in South Australia, this included:

  • the expansion of Specialist Dementia Care Units (SDCUs) in South Australia to three units to offer more suitable and specialised care to people with very severe behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.
  • Aldersgate Residential Aged Care in Felixstow (Aldersgate), operating within the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN).
  • HammondCare in Daw Park (Repat Health Precinct), which opened in August 2023, operating within the Southern Adelaide Health Network (SALHN).
  • Alongside this Unit and also operated by HammondCare, is a third Unit, which opened in February 2024. This is funded by SA Health under a separate Service Agreement with HammondCare.
  • Collaborating with the Commonwealth and stakeholders across SA Health to select northern Adelaide as the location for a fourth SDCU.
  • Supporting the Commonwealth to engage with South Australian aged care providers for the Commonwealth grant opportunity to establish a fourth SDCU within the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN).
  • Establishment of governance processes to support the delivery of clinical in-reach to all SDCUs, ensuring a statewide approach to care and patient flow through engaging with LHNs, aged care providers and the Commonwealth.
  • Working with the Commonwealth to consider alternative models of care to support people with dementia living in rural and remote areas of the state, as well as diverse and priority populations.

The Aged Care Strategy Unit continued to represent South Australia on the Commonwealth, States and Territories Joint Working Group to support the development of the National Dementia Action Plan (NDAP), which will assist in framing the proposed State Dementia Action Plan.

Seniors Card Program

The Seniors Card Program supports social and economic participation of older people and their connectedness to the community. It contributes to making South Australia an affordable and accessible place to live by providing services, important information, community news, events and access to free public transport. The program also facilitates discounts and benefits from participating businesses. There are around 415,000 registered Seniors Card members in South Australia.

Public transport is a vital service for South Australian seniors, providing a safe, accessible, comfortable and affordable way to travel. South Australian Seniors Card members are entitled to free public transport on Adelaide Metro services all day, every day and 50 per cent discount on selected regional public transport services.

Seniors Card members are also entitled to business discounts and offers from over 500 private sector businesses. In 2023-24, Seniors Card partnered with United Petroleum to offer South Australian Seniors Card members four cents per litre off fuel purchases at participating United service stations across Australia, including 24 sites in metro Adelaide and six sites in regional South Australia. In the first six weeks of the partnership, more than 27,000 South Australian Seniors Card members registered for the discount.

Benefits of the Seniors Card program continued to be communicated to members in a variety of ways, including the Seniors Card Discount Directory, direct marketing (post and email), promotion through partners, social media, WeekendPlus (fortnightly digital magazine) and the Seniors Card website. In 2023-24, more than 30 per cent of Seniors Card members were subscribed to email communication from Seniors Card. Of the approximately 20,000 new Seniors Card applications received in 2023-24, 95 per cent were made online.

Ageing Well Community Grants Program

The South Australian Government, through Office for Ageing Well, provided $751,000 in Ageing Community Grants in 2023-2024 to support community organisations and local government projects.

These grants support South Australians to live and age well and promote opportunities for older South Australians to be involved and active in their communities, contributing to the strategic priorities of South Australia’s Plan for Ageing Well 2020-2025.

In 2023-2024, the following grant programs ran concurrently through an open tender process, aimed at community organisations and local government across metropolitan and regional South Australia and South Australian-based researchers/research teams. Projects commenced on 3 June 2024.

Community grants will run for 12 months:

  • Grants for Seniors awarded funding to 40 recipients totalling $208,616. Funding supports purchase of equipment and delivery of cultural, educational and sporting activities and programs for older people.
  • Positive Ageing Fellowship Grants awarded funding to five projects totalling $191,400. Funding is focussed on capability building projects that support older South Australians to age well. An additional targeted grant of $55,500 was also provided to The Australian Centre for Social Innovation to deliver ongoing coaching, mentoring and support to grant recipients over the 12-month funding period to support sustainability.
  • Age Friendly SA Grants awarded funding to six projects totalling $201,000. Funding is focussed on supporting local governments to meet the key priorities of the Age Friendly SA Strategy: Home, Community & environment; Making a contribution; Making it easier to get around; Intergenerational connectedness; and Age friendly services.

Ageing Well Community grant funding was provided for:

  • purchase of equipment
  • delivery of cultural, educational and sporting activities and programs
  • initiatives to tackle ageing stereotypes and support positive perceptions of ageing
  • initiatives that support ageing well, participation, learning and independence
  • initiatives to kick-start age friendly innovation projects to support opportunities for older people to connect to local places and community activities.

Impact Research Grants for Ageing Well were established in 2023 to encourage researchers to undertake independent research that helps address questions of community and policy importance to ageing well. In 2023-2024, grants were awarded to projects relating to the ageing well pillars of ‘Social inclusion’ and ‘Life-course.

  • Impact Research Grants for Ageing Well awarded funding to three groups of researchers. Funding totalled $150,000: one major project ($100,000 over 2024-25 and 2025-26) and two seed projects ($25,000 in 2024-25).