Why is this outcome important?
Outcome 2.1 explains providers’ obligations to make sure their activities are based on their understanding of and meet the needs, preferences and perspectives of older people. This helps tailor funded aged care services to better meet each older person’s needs.
Outcome 2.1 highlights the active role older people can take in shaping the aged care services they receive. In strategic planning activities, you must engage and partner with older people to make use of their strengths and insights. You can do this by encouraging the older person to actively take part in governance and decision-making processes. For example, providing opportunities for older people to take part in Consumer Advisory Bodies or other advisory committees can help make sure their voices guide you as you design, plan, deliver and evaluate services. This can help support a culture of partnership and shared responsibility.
Partnering with older people from diverse backgrounds informs organisational priorities and supports continuous improvement. This can also help make sure aged care services:
- are accessible
- are inclusive
- are culturally safe
- meet older people’s changing needs.
Outcome 2.1 highlights how important it is to have systems that support continuous improvement. They also need to support you to deliver contemporary, evidence-based practice. Learning from older people’s feedback and bringing their ideas together with strategic and operational decisions can change your aged care services to meet the diverse needs of older people. This improves how you deliver care in line with contemporary, evidence-based practices.
You need to give focus to:
- partnering directly with a diverse range of older people who use your services, including:
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander persons
- people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
- supporting older people to partner with you on governance and delivering services
- understanding the diversity of older people who use your services. This includes people at higher risk of harm.
- focusing on continuous improvement.
All providers are required to deliver tailored quality care, working in partnership with older people to understand their individual needs, goals and preferences. All providers delivering aged care services in a residential care home, home or community setting should have processes in place to obtain information from older people and to check how well their partnerships with older people are informing the delivery of aged care services.
Beyond individual assessment, there are other ways providers delivering aged care services in a residential care home, home or community setting and workers need to partner with older people to understand their needs, goals and preferences. For example, providers may run a Consumer Advisory Body committee or feedback focus groups through get-togethers at their premises.
For some providers delivering aged care services in a home or community setting, this may not be location specific. For example, it may be more difficult to arrange in person get-togethers with older people in rural and remote areas. In these cases, providers can seek to connect with older people through phone and online get-togethers.
