Health and Socio-Political Issues in Aged Care

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 1
Residential Aged Care
Name
Institutional Affiliation

HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 2
Table of Contents
Palliative Care in Aged Care...........................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Evaluation of palliative care in residential aged care......................................................................3
A critical discussion of advanced care directives in residential aged care......................................5
A critical discussion of legal and ethical considerations associated with advanced care directives
in residential aged care....................................................................................................................6
Strategies that may improve the provision of palliative care in residential aged care.....................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 3
Palliative Care in Aged Care.
Introduction.
Current advances in the medical industry have made it possible for people to live longer.
Thus, now more than ever the elderly population has grown more rapidly as compared to the
recent past. This growth in numbers of the elderly has led to the need for palliative health care of
the elderly. Technological advancements and globalization have led to an increase of many
lifestyle diseases such as dementia and diabetes, which has mainly affect the elderly making their
lives hard. The aged care system is meant to deal with this situation. It used by the elderly
population to help them take care of their individual need whenever necessary. Aged care
includes components such as home care, hospice care, nursing homes, assisted living, long term
care and adult day care which are services have different features that are beneficial to the
different needs of the aged population. Aged care takes a variety of approaches and one of them
that takes the health of an individual into consideration is palliative care (Gibbins, et.al, 2010).
This essay will look at palliative care in relation to residential aged care, advanced care
directives in residential aged care, then look at the legal and ethical issues that relate to this and
some strategies that can be used to improve palliative care in residential aged care.
Evaluation of palliative care in residential aged care.
Palliative care is described as programs utilized by healthcare professionals to provide for
and improve the quality of a patient’s life while facing life-threatening condition and the
problems associated with it. They make this possible through preventing or easing any suffering
the patient goes through thanks to detecting conditions early and providing the correct and
effective treatment for the condition. Basically, the main aim of this type of care is to improve
the quality of life of a patient and also of their family. There are many conditions that people can

HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 4
suffer from and end up requiring palliative care such as; Parkinson's disease, heart failure,
chronic obstructive, dementia, pulmonary disease, cancer, and many others. There is no specific
stage of a disease that is recommended for a patient who is facing a life-threatening condition to
receive palliative care but it is preferred at the point of diagnosis of a condition (De Jong &
Clarke, 2009).
Palliative care is provided by a team of medical professionals who are from different
disciplines who ensure that the patient with quality all rounded care for the patient. The team
ensures that the patient and their family are socially, physically and emotionally okay in terms of
the life-threatening condition the patient is going through. However, getting palliative care does
not require the patient to give up any treatment being given as a way to try and cure the
condition. The curative care can be carried out in conjunction with palliative care hence this
requires the two teams to work together to come up with a schedule with the patients’ needs put
first (Ostgathe, et.al, 2011).
Palliative care is utilized a lot in residential aged care facilities and is provided in various
ways. Residential aged care allows patients to live in their home and not in a hospital where they
mostly feel is impersonal. Most residential aged care facilities provide palliative care programs
which help the elderly stay comfortably in their homes while their health is being cared for. It is
beneficial since it means they do not have to strain to get treatment and they are where they feel
the love which is comforting as people come to the end of their lives. Next, palliative care
provided in such facilities ensures that each patient receives personalized care according to the
seriousness of their condition (Robinson, Gott & Ingleton, 2014). Dedicated care providers
ensure that the elderly patients do not feel neglected and each of their own preferences if
respected. They can stay independent without having to interact with others as compared to