Designing an Aged Care Program: Independence, Self-determination

This report outlines the design of an aged care program, "We Care for You," tailored for senior citizens in Dublin, Ireland. The program aims to address the challenges faced by the aging population, promoting independence, self-determination, and purposeful activities to enhance their quality of life. It critiques existing Irish aged care services, highlighting their limitations in providing comprehensive support beyond health-related aspects. The proposed program is grounded in the social model of healthcare, emphasizing socialization, monitoring, care, nutrition, and supervision. It includes therapeutic activities, nutritional education, and counseling to improve cognitive and physical well-being. The report also discusses the needs of the program's clients, strategies to meet those needs, potential barriers, and the benefits of the program, drawing on literature to support its approach. The program seeks to fill the gaps in current aged care provisions by offering a holistic approach that fosters financial and emotional stability, and access to quality healthcare.

Running head: AGEING STUDIES
AGED CARE PROGRAM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction/Background.....................................................................................................2
The Project information.......................................................................................................2
Aims.................................................................................................................................3
Objectives........................................................................................................................3
Critic to contemporary Irish aged care services..................................................................4
Theoretical framework of the aged care program................................................................5
Literature support related to the project...............................................................................6
An analytical description of the needs and ways to achieve those needs............................7
Barriers to the care program................................................................................................8
Workplace related barriers...............................................................................................8
Carer related barriers.......................................................................................................9
Benefits and evaluation........................................................................................................9
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................10
References..........................................................................................................................11

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Introduction/Background
Population ageing has emerged as one of the major concerns of the 21st century.
Virtually, each country on the globe is facing an increase in the proportion of older adults. This
social transformation has greater implication on society, economic markets, goods and service,
transportation as well as national development goals (Brownie and Nancarrow 2013). This is the
reason the United Nations has selected aged care as one of the sustainable development goals
until 2030. According to the data of the United Nations (2015), the number of is it individuals
will grow by 56% and the number will increase up to 1.4 million by the year 2050. This increase
will be observed in the developed countries, more than the developing Nations and according to
the data of the United Nations percent increase will be observed in the European region (United
Nations 2015). According to the data of Central statistics office of the public affairs Ireland, the
current aged population of Ireland is 540000 and is expected to grow by 22% and the number
will increase up to 1.4 million by 2041. This shift in the population is due to the higher life
expectancy. Hence, aged care has become one of the major concerns for the society (Ireland's
Health Service 2016). The primary objective of this assignment is to design a program of aged
care inclusive of independence, self-determination and purposeful activities so that the life of the
aged individual can be upgraded. Furthermore, the assignment will provide a theoretical
framework and practice principles after is it care program. Finally, the challenges that can be
faced while running the program and its benefits will be mentioned.
The Project information
There are several aged care program currently operating in Ireland focusing on aspects
such as aged home care program, nursing home support system, community service, residential

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care centers that provide physical, mental and medical support to older adults. However,
maximum of these old age care centers are for specific individuals and targets different medical
conditions such as dementia, arthritis, Parkinson’s syndrome, or to palliative care (Ireland's
Health Service 2016). Hence, the care program “we care for you” has been proposed for the
senior citizens of Dublin. The prime purpose of this program will be providing the senior citizens
with the ability to live independently and revive their self-respect. The first care program will be
held in Dublin and the aged care promotional program will be promoted in the entire city so that
maximum response from the elders can be collected.
Aims
The primary aim of this “We care for you” program is to identify the loopholes and issues
the aged section of the society is facing and the way those concerns can be solved so that they
can lead their lives independently. Furthermore, the program aims to provide them with an
opportunity to do purposeful tasks so their skills can be enhanced.
Objectives
1. Helping each individual under the aged care program to achieve better quality of
life and quality healthcare. Further value their individual needs so that their self-
respect could be maintained.
2. Providing them with their freedom of choice so that they can be respected as a
person.
3. To encourage their independence, financial and emotional, the program will focus
on collaborating with other agencies so that these older adults could become
financially stable and emotionally stronger.

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4. Include self-volunteers such as volunteer physicians, nurses, program campaign
supervisors, accountants and activists with similar compassion and efficiency so
that the target of providing the elders with every possible quality service can be
achieved.
Critic to contemporary Irish aged care services
According to the National Council on Aging People, the aged care centers present in
Ireland generally focuses on health related aspects of aged care and targets mental health,
disability and law related aspects of such care facility. The three basic care facility that can be
observed are geriatric care, long-stay care and community care service, which are being operated
in maximum of the care centers (National Council on Ageing & Older People 2015). The
geriatric facility was introduced in the healthcare facilities in Ireland so that the acute beds
having older adults in hospitals can be reduced, however that did not happen as the hospitals did
not had geriatric care specialists and patients have to wait for long term care. On the other hand,
the underdeveloped community care is growing rapidly in Ireland and currently 18% of elders
are receiving such care in theory own home. However, there is very little evidence of positive as
well as negative aspect of this community care service (National Council on Ageing & Older
People 2015). This is because the reach of this community care center is up to occupational and
physiotherapeutic care, therefore other sections of care such as mental wellness, diet-nutrition
and social support for overall wellness of the older adults are missing in these care facilities.
Furthermore, the long stay homes for elder care are divided into several parts, such as geriatric
homes and hospitals, community hospitals, district hospitals, welfare homes and private nursing
homes (Murphy and Turner 2014). However, the concern of specialist care again weakens this
aspect of older care in Ireland. Further, another sector provides care under this long-term stay

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facility. The volunteer group of different public aged care sector helps the older adults who are
abducted from their homes and do not have any of spring to care for them and provides them
with shelter and ways to live life confidently and independently. However, the number of such
care facilities are very low and the lack of therapeutic unit affects the care facility drastically.
Hence, the aged care program “we care for you’ has been proposed so that these loopholes can
be fulfilled (Murphy and Turner 2014).
Theoretical framework of the aged care program
As the aged care program we care for you is going to target larger section of older adults
and will not include any inclusion criteria, hence, it is important for the success of this program
to be based on any module of care. The social model of Health Care is such a structured idea that
provides the individuals under care with proper socialization, monitoring, care, nutrition and
supervision. Furthermore, the care process can be inclusive of other factors such as
transportation facility activities of daily living skills financial skills and so on (Grimshaw and
Rubery 2013). This model of healthcare is important in aged care facilities because it helps the
older adults to improve their cognitive and physical impairments with the help of informal
caregiver’s assistance in a very low cost compared to the occupational therapy and nursing home
facilities. On the other hand, according to Gagnon et al. (2013), maximum of the healthcare
providers experiences stress and burden while providing care to the older adults. Hence, the
social model of adult care helps them to lower their burdens so that they can provide quality care
to these adults and take care of their fundamental needs, quality process, safety, nutrition in an
improving environment..

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Hence, the program will be based on the social model of healthcare and will provide
quality Healthcare and mental support to the aged individuals. This model of Healthcare will
include individuals above the age of 60 suffering from either cognitive deficits medical problems
dementia or emotional grounds. The aim of this program will remain same and interventions to
boost their confidence and self-worth will be applied. The services, which will include
therapeutic activities such as exercises, art and music therapy, gardening, stretching and different
physical or cognitive creative activities so that the mental health can be, improved (Gannon et al.
2013). Furthermore, diet and nutritional activity will also be included and the older adults will be
given nutritional education and counselling so that they can change the dietary habit. To treat
their mental health, weekly counselling sessions will be arranged (Grimshaw and Rubery 2013).
Literature support related to the project
The informal care process is one of the biggest trends in healthcare today; many countries
are reforming their law, and policies to include these care facility in their mainstream care giving
process. However, Irish care system is still underdeveloped due to the lack of specialized
caregivers and lack of experience in such volunteering healthcare providers. According Temple,
Jukic and Dow (2017), the researchers were to find out the effects of such informal care program
on the national healthcare facility in Australia. For this purpose, the researchers collected data of
National Aged Care Data Cleaning House from the year 2010 to 2013 and assessed the
improvement of those residents who used to live in the community care centers. It was found that
the care provided in such care facilities helped to improve the physical and mental condition of
those individual as the rate of individual registering to such facilities increased every year by 57
percent. Furthermore, the residents responded that they were able to communicate with the carers

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and accepted their interventions because they were able to form a relationship with their carers
that led them to improve their condition (Temple, Jukic and Dow 2017).
Karantzas et al. (2012), to understand number of increasing aged care volunteers and to
assess that they distributed questionnaires having questions regarding their reason to quit their
previous job, importance of job satisfaction, stress and other aspects and further what attracts
them to serve for aged care center voluntarily conducted another research. The respondents
accepted the fact that hospitals and nursing homes are facilities that has experienced staff and
improved infrastructure for treatment. However, the pressure to deal with numerous patients led
them quit their job and join such aged care facilities where the chances of burnouts are less and
they can provide care to improve patients physical as well as mental health (Karantzas et al.
2012).
An analytical description of the needs and ways to achieve those needs
“We care for you” is the aged care program that has been proposed for the aged
population of Dublin; however, it is important for the care program to understand the basic needs
of the clients so that a cumulative care can be provided to the residents (Arendts et al. 2012). As
the aged care program targets physical as well as mental wellness of residents, the care program
should be inclusive of several basic needs such as personal care, support for activities of daily
life, nursing care, counselling, mobility aid or transportation, physical exercise, physiotherapy or
occupational therapy and food and nutrition. Further, as the aged care program is determined to
provide the elder adults with independence and financial and emotional stability therefore they
will be involved in some skill improvement training so that they can feel self-worthy (Lim et al.
2014).

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To achieve these basic needs of the involved adults, they will be divided into groups and
the grouping will be dependent on their ability to perform these tasks. For example, the adults
who are able to perform exercises and activities of daily life will be provided with skills that
need physical strengths and mental stability, whereas the older adults having cognitive
impairment or physical disability will be provided with activities that enhance their self-worth
feelings. For nursing care, exercise training and occupational therapy program, paid or self-
volunteer individuals will be employed so that these crucial activities can be performed under
expert supervision (Lim et al. 2014). Furthermore, according to the aim of the program the
authorities will try to connect to different organizations for skills development, geriatric care,
and transportation facilities. Further, the government and private organizations will be asked for
funding so that the care process can occur smoothly (Arendts et al. 2012).
Barriers to the care program
While the aged care program is proposed to benefit a huge number of older adults, few
barriers can affect the program extensively. These barriers are divided into two groups such as
related to the workplace and related to the caregivers.
Workplace related barriers
 Staff role is the primary problem in the care setting. As the roles of every staff has
been divided, it may possible that the person responsible to help patient with
his/her daily activities did not understand the individual’s depression and force
him/her to perform the task. It affects the client’s perception about the care
facility (Brownie and Nancarrow 2013).

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 Communication gap in the care setting is another major problem in the care
setting as communication gap between registered nurse, physiologist, and
physical trainer can lead to a situation where the health of the resident will be
compromised (Aldridge et al. 2016).
Carer related barriers
 Training related problems are one of the major issues for carers as without the
effective training the care providers will not be able to provide quality care to the
patients.
 Staff attitude towards the residents can also lead to decrease the positive effect of
the process, as they will refuse to perform activities or interventions that will
ultimately affect their health (Benjamin et al. 2014).
Benefits and evaluation
 The primary benefit of such aged care facility will be increased self-determination
and self-respect in residents that will help them to lead the rest of their life with
peace (Yamada et al. 2012).
 Secondly, the older adults will be provided facilities such as exercise, diet and
nutrition, support for activities of daily life and occupational, geriatric therapy
under one roof.
 Finally, the carers will be able to focus properly on the individuals, as the chances
of burnouts are less in aged acre facility (Yamada et al. 2012).
However, evaluation of these benefits will be done by collecting response from the aged
individuals in three intervals, at commencement of the program, at the midst of the program and

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after 6 months of the program so that a proper and unbiased evaluation can be observed
(Reijnders, van Heugten and van Boxtel 2013).
Conclusion
As population, aging is one of the major concerns of the 21st century and the rate of
population aging is increasing, aged care programs should be developed by the government as
well as private organizations. This will help the aging population to live with self-esteem, self-
determination, and independence. This assignment provided an aged care program “We care for
you” and depending on the social model of healthcare, the aged care program provided different
aspects that should be included in the aged care setting. Further, the assignment included
literature support to show that aged care settings in Ireland was not inclusive of each actors that
the proposed aged care program of this assignment included. Furthermore, the barriers of this
aged care program and benefits with evaluation was provided so that this program can be
organized without any loophole.

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References
Aldridge, M.D., Hasselaar, J., Garralda, E., van der Eerden, M., Stevenson, D., McKendrick, K.,
Centeno, C. and Meier, D.E., 2016. Education, implementation, and policy barriers to greater
integration of palliative care: a literature review. Palliative medicine, 30(3), pp.224-239.
Arendts, G., Dickson, C., Howard, K. and Quine, S., 2012. Transfer from residential aged care to
emergency departments: an analysis of patient outcomes. Internal medicine journal, 42(1),
pp.75-82.
Benjamin, K., Edwards, N., Ploeg, J. and Legault, F., 2014. Barriers to physical activity and
restorative care for residents in long-term care: a review of the literature. Journal of aging and
physical activity, 22(1), pp.154-165.
Brownie, S. and Nancarrow, S., 2013. Effects of person-centered care on residents and staff in
aged-care facilities: a systematic review. Clinical interventions in Aging, 8, p.1.
Gagnon, M.P., Orruño, E., Asua, J., Abdeljelil, A.B. and Emparanza, J., 2012. Using a modified
technology acceptance model to evaluate healthcare professionals' adoption of a new
telemonitoring system. Telemedicine and e-Health, 18(1), pp.54-59.
Grimshaw, D. and Rubery, J., 2012. The end of the UK’s liberal collectivist social model? The
implications of the coalition government’s policy during the austerity crisis. Cambridge Journal
of Economics, 36(1), pp.105-126.