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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 49(2)

Comprehensive day-to-day care and support needs of older Australians requiring government-funded home-based aged care: a scoping review

Rachel McKittrick https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2208-1716 A * , Elizabeth Manias https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3747-0087 B , Martin Hensher C , James Meroiti A D and Alison M. Hutchinson A D E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, 1 Gheringhap Street, Geelong, Vic 3220, Australia.

B Monash Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia.

C Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 23, Hobart, Tas 7001, Australia.

D Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research/Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, 1 Gheringhap Street, Geelong, Vic 3220, Australia.

E Barwon Health, PO Box 281, Geelong, Vic 3220, Australia.

* Correspondence to: rmckittrick@deakin.edu.au

Australian Health Review 49, AH24234 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH24234
Submitted: 30 August 2024  Accepted: 24 January 2025  Published: 17 February 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA.

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to locate and describe research studies in which the comprehensive day-to-day care and support needs of older Australians requiring home-based aged care have been measured and reported in detail.

Methods

A scoping review was conducted according to Joanna Briggs Institute guidance. A systematic search of peer-reviewed and grey literature was undertaken.

Results

Screening identified 2/866 eligible records. Researchers studying the ‘service needs’ of older people (n = 50) residing in a rural/remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community found a high need for home care (86%), transport (59%), and allied health (46%) services. In the second study, older people (n = 55) from a regional community had 38/79 ‘underlying care needs’ including for washing/bathing, managing urinary incontinence, and arranging/keeping appointments. The authors of each study took a different perspective of ‘needs’ – that is, their participants’ need for specific service types (e.g. transport) versus their fundamental underlying needs (e.g. arranging/keeping appointments) which give rise to service needs.

Conclusions

The findings suggest Australian aged care providers and policy-makers lack a strong evidence base about the comprehensive underlying day-to-day care and support needs experienced by older Australians, to optimally inform both the design of home-based aged care programs and services, and workforce skill and skill mix requirements for the sector. Future studies about the population’s underlying day-to-day care and support needs, with larger and more representative study populations (e.g. making use of routinely collected aged care datasets), would be beneficial. Such studies would provide important information to support the development of a government-funded home-based aged care system optimised to effectively and efficiently meet the needs of the population it is seeking to support.

Keywords: Australia, care and support needs range and prevalence, community aged care, home care, older people, service system design, workforce planning, workforce skill and skill-mix requirements.

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