ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates the policy context for social work practice with older people in Australia. It explores the key trends in ageing and aged care policy. The chapter describes an important issue that has been influencing policy in this area for many years, and which underscores the need for more social workers to be involved in practice with older people: population ageing. Concerns about the increasing proportion of older people in the population have been central drivers for ageing and aged care policy over the past three decades. Periods of increased fertility result in a larger cohort or generation of people moving through the lifespan. Population ageing is experienced differently by diverse groups of people in Australia, Because women have a longer life expectancy, on average, than men, there are more women in the older population, especially in the upper age groups. A major concern is the absence of Indigenous Australians in the older population.
