Steps towards equitable care: creating web pages to highlight diversity for Australia’s aged care and end of life care workforce
Georgia Rowley A * , Jennifer Tieman B and Kelly Jones BA College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia.
B College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia.
Australian Journal of Primary Health 28(4) 338-343 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY21084
Submitted: 30 April 2021 Accepted: 5 February 2022 Published: 20 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of La Trobe University. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Background: The impact of Australia’s diverse population on the aged care sector has been acknowledged, with the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety findings providing evidence of the importance of population diversity for consumer-directed and person-centred care. Similarly, the Aged Care Quality Standards and Aged Care Diversity Framework acknowledge the diversity of Australia’s ageing population and potential implications for equitable access to care and the ensuing importance of culturally appropriate and culturally safe care. This paper reports on the development of informational web pages and utilisation findings for use by the aged care workforce supporting diverse populations.
Methods: Content was created for the End of Life Directions for Aged Care website, based on rapid review findings relating to barriers and limitations for people accessing equitable care in the aged care and palliative care sectors.
Results: Website pages containing embedded links to useful content and resources for health professionals and care workers who work with older diverse adults are shown to be well received among users.
Conclusions: As Australia’s future population will age with increasing diversity markers, with implications for aged care and palliative care service provision, workforce access to up-to-date, relevant and evidence-informed information on best practice non-clinical support for individuals from diverse backgrounds towards the end of life promotes a person-centred care approach. Access data shows that the website content is being utilised increasingly over time and suggests that it is filling a gap in comprehensive and accessible end of life resources that have been missing from the Australian aged care and palliative care workforce.
Keywords: aged care, consumer-directed care, diversity, healthcare disparities, health services, palliative care, person-centred care.
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