Aged Care: Structure, Approaches, Legal and Ethical Obligations

This article provides an overview of the aged care sector, including the structure and profile of residential aged care and home and community support sector. It also discusses the current best practice service delivery models and relevant agencies and referral networks for support services. Additionally, the article covers standard care approaches such as dementia care, palliative care, incontinence care, bereavement care, and community and social care. Finally, it outlines two legal and two ethical obligations that must be complied with when working with elderly patients.

Running head: Aged Care
Aged Care
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1Aged Care
1. Structure and profile in the aged care sector:
Residential Aged care:
Residential Aged Care setup is funded by the Commonwealth and it includes High
Level Care setup or Nursing home care facility; Low level care setup or hostel care facility
and care facilities which provides both high level and low level care (Gnanamanickam et al.
2018).
Home and Community Support Sector:
These are funded and administrated jointly by State or Territorial Government and the
Commonwealth and includes Community Aged Care Packages (CACP); Home and
Community Care Program (HACC) and Respite Programs which supports elderly and frail
patients (Zografos et al. 2016).
Current best practice service delivery models:
The current service delivery models include:
i. Walk in/Walk out (RARMS)
ii. Viable Models/Sustainable Models
iii. University Clinics
iv. Shared Care Model
v. Co-Ordinated Care Trials
vi. Primary Health Care teams
vii. Multi Purpose Service Programs

2Aged Care
viii. Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Services
ix. Hub and spoke
x. Visiting periodic services
xi. Fly in/Fly out
xii. Virtual amalgamation
xiii. Virtual Clinics
xiv. Telehealth and Telemedicine
(Wakerman et al. 2017)
Relevant Agencies and referral networks for support services:
Agencies and referral networks that are relevant to aged care include:
i. My Aged Care
ii. Help to Stay at home
iii. Caring for someone
iv. Dementia care
v. National Aged Care Advocacy group
vi. Community Visitors
vii. Incontinence care
viii. Aged care complaints commissioner
(agedcare.health.gov.au 2018)

3Aged Care
3. Care Approaches which are standard implications in aged care setup:
i. Dementia Care:
This approach is focussed on supporting elderly patients suffering from dementia, and
empowers them to improve their quality of life within a safe and supporting environment.
ii. Palliative Care:
This approach of care focuses on the providence of end of life care for elderly patients
suffering from terminal conditions, and helps to provide relief from symptoms, physical or
mental stress caused due to the diagnosis.
iii. Incontinence care:
This approach focuses on the providence of care and support for elderly patients
suffering from incontinence, and helps them to improve their quality of life.
iv. Bereavement Care:
This focuses on the support of elderly patients who have lost their loved ones, through
psychological, social and pharmaceutical support.
v. Community and Social Care:
This focuses on the providence of care to elderly within a community or social setup.
(Nusem et al. 2017; Chan et al. 2018)
6. Two legal and Two ethical Obligations that must be complied to when working with
elderly patients:

4Aged Care
Legal Obligations:
i. Confidentiality
This implies that the patient’s information should be kept absolutely confidential and
ensures compliance with state laws about disclosure to public health administration or third
parties. This implies that health information of the elderly patients should be kept in sctrictest
confidentiality and not shared with unauthorised individuals. Sharing of information should
only be done after an informed consent of the patient.
ii. Autonomy and Informed Consent:
Ensuring the patient has the right for self determination, consent and the right to
refuse treatment. This also implies right of the patient to be educated about the advantages
and disadvantages of a clinical decision. This means that the elderly patients should be given
the right to chose whether they want to go through a treatment or not, and what type of
treatment they would prefer. In order for them to make an informed clinical decision, all the
relevant information regarding the treatment, and its pros and cons as well as any available
treatment alternatives with their pros and cons should be informed along with information
regarding the consequences for not opting for any treatment.
Ethical Obligations:
i. Beneficence:
This ensures that the care is focussed on helping the patient with the patient’s best
interests in consideration. Thus, healthcare professionals needs to ensure that any intervention
should focus on the benefit of the elderly patient.
ii. Non-Malfeasance

5Aged Care
This ensures that no harm is caused to the patient (advertently or inadvertently) as a
result of the treatment and involving care strategies which are least restrictive, or that affects
the quality of life of the patient in the least possible way. To ensure this, healthcare
professionals should ensure that no harm befalls the patient during the treatment (Hall et al.
2018).

6Aged Care
References:
agedcare.health.gov., 2018. Support Services, retrieved on July 6, 2018. From:
https://agedcare.health.gov.au/support-services
Chan, D.K. and Chan, L.K., 2018. Aged care services in Australia and commentary on
lessons learnt. Aging Medicine, 1(1), pp.50-54.
Gnanamanickam, E.S., Dyer, S.M., Milte, R., Harrison, S.L., Liu, E., Easton, T., Bradley, C.,
Bilton, R., Shulver, W., Ratcliffe, J. and Whitehead, C., 2018. Direct health and residential
care costs of people living with dementia in Australian residential aged care. International
journal of geriatric psychiatry.
Hall, M.A., Orentlicher, D., Bobinski, M.A., Bagley, N. and Cohen, I.G., 2018. Health care
law and ethics. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Nusem, E., Wrigley, C. and Matthews, J., 2017. Exploring aged care business models: a
typological study. Ageing & Society, 37(2), pp.386-409.
Wakerman, J., Humphreys, J., Wells, R., Kuipers, P., Entwistle, P. and Jones, J., 2017. A
systematic review of primary health care delivery models in rural and remote Australia 1993-
2006.
Zografos, C., Anguelovski, I. and Grigorova, M., 2016. When exposure to climate change is
not enough: Exploring heatwave adaptive capacity of a multi-ethnic, low-income urban
community in Australia. Urban Climate, 17, pp.248-265.