Working well? Older workers, health and work

Australia's older workers on low incomes tend to have poorer health, but they are being expected to work longer.

In partnership with the University of Melbourne, the Brotherhood of St Laurence conducted a study of the connections between health and work among older adults employed in low-income roles in the aged care sector. Australia’s workforce is becoming older and the labour force participation rates of older adults are forecast to increase, particularly among women.

Some 20 older workers from a range of different life situations were recruited for qualitative interviews. We aimed to learn about people’s family roles, their work and money situation, their health, and experiences of ageing.

The study is being conducted by Shelley Mallett, Dina Bowman and Aaron Hart from the University of Melbourne and the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

Contact Dina Bowman

Report

Aaron Hart, Dina Bowman and Shelley Mallett 2019, Improving the health of older aged care workers (PDF, 437 KB)

This is one component of a larger Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP160100467) entitled “Working longer, staying healthy and keeping productive”. The ARC project comprises five studies, with each taking a different approach to informing policy development around older workers and their workplaces. It brings together researchers from the Australian National University, the federal departments of Social Services and Employment, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, the University of Melbourne, Safe Work Australia and Queensland Treasury.