The aged care sector is for older Australians and after the final report of the Aged Care Royal Commission exposed systematic failings, they want a say in all levels of reform to the sector.
Currently people living in aged care homes feel opportunities for them to be involved in design of aged care are minimal, according to a survey of 4,562 older people by the Not For Profit consumer body National Seniors Australia.
National Seniors CEO and Director of Research, Professor John McCallum, said the response highlights the risk of inherent ageism if it’s left to just bureaucrats alone to redesign aged care.
One third of survey participants alluded to ‘older people’ being involved in co-designing improvements to the aged care system. Older people wanted to be involved in every level of negotiation – with governments, aged care service managers and owners, architects and builders.
“It is clear that a market-based solution to aged care problems, whereby individuals choose between existing services and avoid providers with bad reputations, is not enough. Senior Australians want change, and they want to co-design it,” said Professor McCallum.
Co-design is an approach to actively involve all stakeholders in the processes and procedures to help ensure the result meets their needs and is usable. That means listening to older people’s views.
“Co-designing aged care system means involving people over the age of 60 in better identifying the needs of senior citizens. More importantly it means that the bureaucrats listen to the input and action it.”
“A system that caters for all and covers the broader spectrum of the population needs and requirements.”
National Seniors said that the fact that in this study over 4500 respondents freely chose to write text in response to an optional co-design question in their own words is a surprising result. Even those who had little idea of what co-design was often wrote extensive comments indicating a yearning for engagement with the reform of Australian aged care.
“To me it means that older people should be at least as much as others involved in designing improvements to the aged care system.”
“Co-design is a concept whereby I have a role in how something will affect me. For example, an aged care facility where there is co-design means that I have input into my care and am consulted (or my family are consulted.) There will be procedures/rules that govern how the co-design works and what I can expect out of the process. It will also list what my options are if I don’t agree with the outcome.”
“Older Australians are acutely aware of problems with the current aged care system and where improvements might be made. Without necessarily naming it, they are also aware that ageism underlies many of these problems, including the assumption that older people are not capable of managing their own lives. In opposition to this, they seek to assert that they do have the capacity to make decisions about their own lives and about the aged care system in general,” said Professor McCallum.
Let’s hope the Government is ready to get older Australians involved in designing the new system.
