Health and Socio-Political Issues in Aged Care

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 1
Health and Socio-Political Issues in Aged Care
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HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 2
Health and Socio-Political Issues in Aged Care
Introduction
In Australia, it is of the essence to change the focus of older people. Health care delivery
models of the aged need to be assessed. Rather than managing numerous symptoms and diseases
in a disjointed way, there should be an emphasis on the intervention that enhances older people
mental and physical dimensions of their life to empower them to do things they value. Thus,
there must be a change in the organizations of services. The large population of aged people
contributes a substantial burden of disease, resulting in a significant gap in health care delivery.
Various factors profoundly influence sectors of health. It is significant to endorse a system that
promotes quality life at the end of life. The contemporary aged care is continually changing.
There are diverging views concerning what professional and adequate care of the old people is.
Hence, enhance at improving people's needs and health issues, especially at the late stage of life.
Residential aged care accommodates old people who have complex care needs and cognition
problems that can make communication problems.
Palliative care provision in residential aged care
As defined by WHO palliative care is viewed as a technique of treatment that aims at
improving the individual and their family’s worth of life (Sepúlveda, Marlin, Yoshida &Ullrich,
2012). It aims at facilitating those who are facing life-limiting illness through exoneration of
suffering and prevention. It includes timely identification, and comprehensive treatment and
assessment of pain and other difficulties such as psychosocial, physical, and spiritual issues
(Hudson et al. 2012). Palliative care is delivered to elderly people in residential care to advance
their quality of life. It is crucial to make elderly people feel supported and contented as possible.
Palliative care plays a substantial role in expediting and enhancing the quality of life in

HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 3
residential care (Luckett et al. 2015). It improves the end of life quality through the following
ways.
 Demonstrations on how old people can manage pain and other distressing symptoms
 Helps to show older adults it is reasonable to die and it is part of life and experience and
not medical or biological events
 Provides spiritual, cultural and psychosocial needs of residents, their families and their
cares are of significant as meeting their physical needs
 Assist in decision making concerning the end of life should be shared between residents
and the interdisciplinary team. Friends and families should be involved as substitute
decision makers, following wishes expressed by the patients or jurisdictional legislation.
 It emphasizes that high quality and safe end of life care necessitates the availability of
appropriately skilled, experienced and qualified staff in residential aged care.
 It outlines the significance of having active communication, teamwork, and collaboration
and ensuring coordination and continuity between teams between and within settings and
through multiple cares to achieve high value and safe end of life quality care.
Palliative care is a fundamental public health issue because of the swelling number of the
ageing population in society and the lack of appropriate attention to their complex needs. It aims
at cultivating the dignity, signs, and quality of life to the end of their lives and the support and
care of their families and friends (Australian Institute of Health, 2012). Most death transpires
among older people. A substantial amount of older people live in residential aged care. Palliative
care facilitates improving their lives as they reach the end of life.
Aging population in Australia is swelling dramatically. The arrays of diseases are also
varying with superfluous people dying from chronic situations such as chronic obstructive

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pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, and diabetes and majority of the
illness occurs to older people (Luckett et al. 2015). Older people frequently experience multiple
health problems and disabilities. Thus, palliative care urgently necessities to be enhanced to meet
the complex needs of older people. There are several reasons why palliative healthcare is an
urgent priority in residential aged.
Ageing demographics. The proportion of aged people over 65 years in Australia is progressively
increasing.
Complex needs of older people. In impending the end of life, older people typically have several
deliberating diseases such as arthritis, osteoporosis, and dementia.
Advanced care plans and Advanced care directives in residential aged care
Advanced care planning is the practice of organizing for the future health and personal
care where personal beliefs, values, and partialities are identified to direct decision making at
time when people are inept to communicate their decisions (Mullick, Martin & Sallnow, 2013).
Advance care directives are a product of advance care planning and involve a collaborative
process amongst the individual or family members and the clinicians to aid adopt the option of
the persons care and choose an alternative to determining in the circumstance of loss capacity.
An advance directive comprises of a written statement of the kind of treatment you want at the
end of life. It asserts that your wishes are carried out even when you are unable to communicate
your preferences with the healthcare professionals (Carter, Detering, Silvester & Sutton, 2016).
There are various types of advanced care directives applied in residential care. They include
upholding the person's life objectives, values, and desired outcome, outlining directions about
treatment and care refusals and choosing of a proxy decision maker.