Delivering inclusive and quality services in community and residential aged care settings

Abstract

More than 282,000 people were using residential care (permanent or respite), home care or transition care services in Australia on 30 June 2018.1 In October 2018, in response to continued negative publicity and a community call for action, the Australian Government announced a Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.2 This Virtual Issue of the Australasian Journal on Ageing is the third in a series on aged care quality and safety and responds to two of the Royal Commission on Aged Care Quality and Safety Terms of Reference: e) how to ensure that aged care services are person‑centred, including through allowing people to exercise greater choice, control and independence in relation to their care, and improving engagement with families and carers on care‑related matters and f) how best to deliver aged care services in a sustainable way, including through innovative models of care, increased use of technology and investment in the aged care workforce and capital infrastructure. These questions are of utmost importance to the aged care sector, particularly given the initiation of consumer directed care policy changes in February 2017.3 Consumer directed care was introduced to provide greater choice and control to older people over the services they wanted to receive, as well as from who, when and how they were to receive them.3 There is still an emerging body of evidence around the effectiveness of this policy on person‐centred (relationship‐driven) care outcomes and the impact of this model in the Australian context. This Virtual Issue tries to unpack the effects of the aged care reforms and answer these questions. There are two sections to this Virtual Issue: community aged care and residential aged care. The community aged care section (eight articles) includes the themes of consumer directed care, vulnerable communities and innovation, while the residential aged care section (14 articles) includes the themes of choice and consultation, diversity and models of care.