Community Engagement in Elderly Care: Reflections from a Placement at Catholic Health Care

This report reflects on a community engagement placement at Catholic Health Care, focusing on elderly care for individuals with dementia, mental health issues, and palliative care. The report discusses the purpose, alignment, recommendations, and reflections on the practice, and how it aligns with community engagement theory.

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COMMUNITY REPORT
By [Name]
Course
Professor’s Name
Institution
Location of Institution
Date

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Introduction
Community engagement is a general term for people who unite to form interest groups
(Durey et al., 2016). Community engagement intends to tackle a problem facing a specific group
of individuals in the community. The engagement platforms improve the health and well-being
of the targeted people. Partnership and collaboration are critical elements of community
engagement as they influence systems and mobilize resources towards proper service delivery to
the vulnerable (Hurley et al., 2016). Recent research has also shown that the practice improves
both health research and promotion. Community engagement tackles the economic and social
determinants of health. This report will reflect on my community engagement placement at the
Catholic health care. It will focus on the audience that I served which are the aged people with
Dementia, mental health patients, and palliative care. The paper will also discuss the purpose,
alignment, recommendation, and reflection on the practice.
The Customer
I assisted the Catholic healthcare staff to serve in the aged care and vulnerable old
citizens. The audience falls into three categories including short-term respite care, palliative care,
and dementia-specific care. Respite care involves assisting the carers of the elderly and sick
individuals to look after the vulnerable groups (Gresham, Heffernan, and Brodaty, 2018). I
supported the elderly individuals by cooking their favorite foods and preparing their bedroom
before sleeping time. I also kept them company by spending time with them.
The Catholic healthcare based in Surry Hills, Sidney also provides dementia care for the
affected individuals. Dementia is a mental disorder that impairs the reasoning capacity of
individuals and also leads to short and long-term memory loss (Bush, Fink, and Lei, 2016). I
helped the caregivers at the health facility to design the rooms in favor of the patients.

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Additionally, I fitted calendars in those rooms to remind the dementia patients about upcoming
events and community functions.
Apart from respite, and dementia care, I participated in offering palliative care to elderly
individuals. Palliative care involves attending to individuals with life-limiting complications like
heart failure, and chronic kidney disease. I comforted and supported the patients with end-of-life
complications. I advised the friends and family members of the patients to accept the conditions
of the patients and show compassion towards them. Furthermore, I talked to the patients to meet
their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs.
The Purpose
The organization provides a variety of resources and support to elderly individuals.
Therefore, the caregivers address a majority of customer needs like spiritual and emotional
necessities. However, the facility fails to send a few requirements of the clients. Firstly, the
facility provides accommodation and support for every senior citizen. Secondly, proper nutrition
is available to improve the health and wellbeing of the patients. Relevant meals reduce the
chances of malnutrition complication to the clients in the facility (Porter, Haines, and Truby,
2017).
The needs addressed by the organization include the spiritual, emotional, and physical
requirements of the patients, their friends, and family members. The palliative care unit offers to
counsel to the relations of individuals having the chronic complications. The dementia
department has designed programs that assist the patients to retain their memory. Some of the
remedies include a physical exercise session and ringing bells to remind patients about certain
activities (Dewing, and Dijk, 2016). The organization meets the above needs to ensure a
comfortable stay for elderly clients.

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I found out that the facility should focus on the desire of the elderly individuals and their
actual will. I realized that the caring system was uniform and did not focus on the perspective of
each. A section of dementia patients finds physical exercise to be tedious and unhealthy for
them. Therefore, the remedy does not fit their need to retain both short and long-term memory at
the organization.
Alignment of Practice with Community Engagement Theory
I found out that the practices at the health facility align with the community engagement
theory. The caregivers' line of duty concurs with the social innovation theory and that of
reciprocity. Social innovation is a new concept that attempts to address the social needs of a
specific group of vulnerable individuals (Tuczek, Castka, and Wakolbinger, 2018). The Catholic
health care facility has designed programs and rooms to meet the needs of the dementia patients.
The caregivers maintain the items in the room at a fixed location due to the patients' memory
disorders. Additionally, the organization has psychiatrists, and spiritual leaders to address the
emotional, and spiritual needs of patients and family members at the palliative care.
The practices at the organization also conform to the theory of social reciprocity.
Offering a positive response to the desired action forms the basis of reciprocity (Velez, 2015).
The organization is friendly to elderly patients as it provides a favorable environment for
recovery and end-of-life care. The patients of dementia respond by showing improvement in
their ability to retain both short and long-term memory. The exemplary services at the palliative
care comfort the patients, their friends, and family, and family members. Therefore, the clients
have admitted that they lead a happy life even though their loved ones have chronic
complications. The subtle gestures by the caregivers make the facility environment to favor the
recovery of patients.

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Recommendations
The organization should improve on certain aspects to improve the community
engagement in its services. The facility should improve the internal and external environment of
the patients. The administration should recruit security officers to protect patients from any
interior or exterior harm. The Catholic center should also ensure that no noise pollution can
disrupt the stay of the elderly individuals at the facility.
The facility should also improve its interaction with the audience to facilitate the
recovery process. The administration should accord the patients the opportunity to offer
suggestions on the various methods of nursing interventions. The nurses should be friendly
towards the patients and listen to their complaints (Zugai, Stein-Parbury, and Roche, 2015).
The organization should improve its interaction with the volunteers like the students on
placement programs and other stakeholders. The facility should allow the volunteers to
participate in the activities of the organization fully. The administrator of the facility can also pay
stipends to the volunteers to motivate them. Furthermore, the caregivers should be friendly and
welcome suggestions from the community engagement individuals (Richardson, Percy, and
Hughes, 2015).
The health facility should improve the condition of the rooms and employ specialists
from the community and other areas. The facility administrator should recruit a variety of
spiritual leaders to meet the needs of the family members whose relatives are undergoing
palliative care. The patient rooms should contain requirements for both the patients and the
volunteers.
Reflection

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The experience of attending to elderly patients shaped my values, assumptions, attitudes,
and skills. After my placement, I have developed the moral values of beneficence, autonomy,
and nonmaleficence. A caregiver should respect the ethical principles to ensure quality attention
to elderly patients (Doody, and Noonan, 2016). An example is providing adequate information to
the client to enable them to make an informed decision on treatment.
The field exposure has also corrected my previous assumptions about caring for the
senior citizens. Before the attachment, I thought that the symptoms of dementia are irreversible
through any medical or nursing remedies. I also did not believe in the concept and benefits of
respite care. However, with appropriate solutions, the caregivers can reduce the symptoms of
dementia (Luckett et al., 2017). Additionally, respite care is beneficial to both the patient and the
carers.
The placement at the Catholic health care center has also shaped my attitudes towards the
senior citizens. Before the experience, I thought that it is difficult to look after the elderly
patients. I also thought that palliative care is an impossible venture. However, I know realize that
caring for elderly patients is a simple task, and end-of-life care is the reality.
I have learned various skills from the carers at the facility of my placement. I can now
make a room to be dementia-friendly to the victims. Additionally, I can conduct palliative
counseling to the victims and the patients. I can also perform respite care to the senior citizens.
Conclusion
Community Engagement unites people in interest groups that tackle social problems
facing specific people in the community. The Catholic health care center was my placement area
where the customers were the senior citizens. I assisted the nurses to attend to a patient of
dementia and to offer both respite and palliative care. The organization addresses the needs of

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the patients by designing the rooms to suit elderly patients. The services of the organization are
in tandem with the theory of social innovation and reciprocity. The two methods of community
engagement facilitate the recovery of the patients. The facility should improve its interaction
with the audience and the volunteers to enhance the quality of service delivery. My placement at
the facility shaped my attitude, skills, attitude, and assumptions towards elderly individuals. I can
now offer quality care to senior citizens. Both palliative and respite care are essential nursing
remedies for elderly patients.

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References
Bush, A.I., Fink, G. and Lei, P., 2016. Dementia Research Australia: the Australian Dementia
Research Development Fellowship Program. Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, 60(3), pp.277-
278.
Dewing, J. and Dijk, S., 2016. What is the current state of care for older people with dementia in
general hospitals? A literature review. Dementia, 15(1), pp.106-124.
Doody, O. and Noonan, M., 2016. Nursing research ethics, guidance, and application in practice.
British Journal of Nursing, 25(14), pp.803-807.
Durey, A., McEvoy, S., Swift-Otero, V., Taylor, K., Katzenellenbogen, J. and Bessarab, D.,
2016. Improving health care for Aboriginal Australians through active engagement between
community and health services. BMC health services research, 16(1), p.224.
Gresham, M., Heffernan, M., and Brodaty, H., 2018. The Going to Stay at Home program:
combining dementia caregiver training and residential respite care. International
Psychogeriatrics, pp.1-10.
Hurley, J., Lamker, C.W., Taylor, E.J., Stead, D., Hellmich, M., Lange, L., Rowe, H., Beeck, S.,
Phibbs, P. and Forsyth, A., 2016. The exchange between researchers and practitioners in urban
planning: achievable objective or a bridge too far?/The Use of academic research in planning

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practice: who, what, where, when and how?/Bridging research and practice through
collaboration: lessons from a joint working group/Getting the relationship between researchers
and practitioners working/Art and urban planning: stimulating researcher, practitioner and
community engagement/Collaboration between researchers and practitioners: Political and ....
Planning theory & practice, 17(3), pp.447-473.
Luckett, T., Chenoweth, L., Phillips, J., Brooks, D., Cook, J., Mitchell, G., Pond, D., Davidson,
P.M., Beattie, E., Luscombe, G. and Goodall, S., 2017. A facilitated approach to family case
conferencing for people with advanced dementia living in nursing homes: perceptions of
palliative care planning coordinators and other health professionals in the IDEAL study.
International Psychogeriatrics, 29(10), pp.1713-1722.
Porter, J., Haines, T.P. and Truby, H., 2017. The efficacy of Protected Mealtimes in hospitalized
patients: a stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial. BMC Medicine, 15(1), p.25.
Richardson, C., Percy, M. and Hughes, J., 2015. Nursing therapeutics: teaching student nurses
care, compassion and empathy. Nurse Education Today, 35(5), pp.e1-e5.
Tuczek, F., Castka, P. and Wakolbinger, T., 2018. A review of management theories in the
context of quality, environmental and social responsibility voluntary standards. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 176, pp.399-416.

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Velez, J.A., 2015. Extending the theory of Bounded Generalized Reciprocity: An explanation of
the social benefits of cooperative video game play. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, pp.481-
491.
Zugai, J.S., Stein-Parbury, J. and Roche, M., 2015. Therapeutic alliance in mental health nursing:
an evolutionary concept analysis. Issues in mental health nursing, 36(4), pp.249-257.