NUR104 Assignment: Exploring Aged Care in Australia: NUR104

This assignment, likely for a nursing or healthcare course (NUR104), examines various aspects of aged care in Australia. It explores the advantages of older Australians living in their own homes, the ways they find out about available services through My Aged Care, and the role of organizations like Alzheimer’s Australia. The assignment also investigates the benefits of leisure activities, such as Men's Shed, on the physical and psychological health of older men. Furthermore, it delves into age-related changes that contribute to constipation and strategies for its prevention and management. The assignment also covers the risks and hazards associated with safe environment games and the difficulties that attract graduate health professionals to the aged care sector. The content is supported by several research papers and sources, providing a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in the field of aged care.

CHILD, YOUTH AND FAMILY
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Advantages of Older Australians Living In Their Own Homes
Majority of old Australians opt to stay at their own homes with or without support because first they are
familiar with the environment and can be very stressful to them and it can take time for them to adjust
to the new environment (Eric et al., 2014, p.1825). Old people prefer staying in their homes where they
are comfortable and familiar with surroundings and near people whom they love like family members
and friends. The second advantage which makes old people opt to remain at their homes is personalized
care (Clegg, Young, Iliffe, Rikkert & Rockwood, 2013, p.752). This is because receiving care from your
own home means that the care worker will only be focused on you only and not multiple residents at
once. As compared to nursing care homes where several individuals can be attended by one care
worker, staying at home is costly which most older people of Australia cannot afford based on the fact
that they are not employed they have to depend on their savings and government support (Kim, Jeong
& Park, 2013). The second challenge which is faced by this individuals is that they are somehow isolated
by their family members (Feng, Liu & Zhu, 2014, p.1699).
Discuss How Old People Find Out About Services Which Are Available Through My Aged Care
Old people can access information about available service in My Aged Care in various ways. An
individual can register into the website to receive non-urgent services (Lovelock & Patterson, 2015). The
support team of the website can organize referral forms to be given to them which helps them register
or direct the client to call or send messages to My Aged Care on 1 800 200 422 for registration.
However, for unknown reasons, many Australian old people are not able to talk to My Aged Care
through the phone, so it is the role of the organization to send specific groups of individuals to them to
ensure that they are still able to access these services (Schön, 2017). The organization sends this
individual when the old person has some medical situation which can’t allow them to talk over the
phone like earing problems or the person belongs to the aboriginal community who due to the past
experience in their lives are not comfortable talking over the phone. These agents can also be sent to
remote areas where people do not have access to phone and language barrier where a community only
understand their local language.

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Organization Applicable For Older People
Organizations like the Alzheimer’s Australia have been of great help to old people living in Australia
since not all of them are able to cater for themselves due to harsh financial situations. Family members
and friends sometimes volunteer themselves to help old people, but more help is required especially for
old people who have disabilities and mental health problems. Alzheimer’s Australia has helped old
people in various number of methods. For older adults living with mental disorders, these organizations
send a number of several healthcare professionals to homes to attend this individual. Alzheimer’s
Australia has also established nursing care homes in which old people can be taken good care by
professional care workers. To control infections like obesity Alzheimer’s Australia has organized physical
activities programs which ensures that these people actively participate in them to keep fit (Wilson et
al., 2015, p.133). Alzheimer’s Australia also takes the role of fighting or the rights of the old people and
ensure that they are not mistreated by others in the society. This organization has ensured that
healthcare facilities are made available to old people by building hospitals so that they can access
healthcare attention fast whenever they are unwell.
How Attending Meaningful Leisure Activities like Men’s Shed Enhance the Physical and Psychological
Health of Older Men
Leisure activities and hobbies are very essential specifically for the elderly. Activities like attending the
men’s shed are not fun, but they can also refresh the mind and body of the elderly. It has scientifically
been proven that spending time doing the things we enjoy helps delay signs of aging and the pleasure of
participating in this activities leads to positive feelings which are significant in fighting some health
complications like blood pressure (Milligan et al., 2013). Leisure activities enhance the physical health of
men by improving their flexibility. The activities which old men engage in in men’s shed which involves
art work stretches their muscle making them flexible. Been active in the activities performed in men’s
shade improves their immune system. This is because physical activities help prevent and control some
chronic infections such as diabetes and heart complications. These activities enable old men to enhance
the quality of life they live. Many leisure activities challenge our mental abilities, and they enhance our
problem solving skills thus men’s shed activities improves the memory of these old men. This activity
offers mental stimulations after an old man completes a task. Psychological health of an individual is
boosted as this activities helps reduce stress (Cordier & Wilson, 2013, p.483).

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Age Related Changes That Contribute To Constipation And Strategies Used To Prevent And Manage
Constipation.
Age related factor which contributes to constipation includes poor diet. Most elderly in Australia do not
engage themselves in physical activities which can contribute to constipation. Old people who are
widowed or single seems to lack appetite and thus leading to over use of convenient foods which are
usually low in fiber (Coggrave & Norton, 2013). As some people ages, they may experience loss of teeth
which makes it hard for them to have regular meals and thus they are forced to depend on soft and
processed foods which are low in fiber. Lack of physical exercise is another major cause of constipation
among the elderly. Healthcare professional advice old people to eat more fiber by taking plenty of
vegetables and fruits as fiber helps form soft and bulky stools. Elderly are also advised to drink a lot of
water and take fluids to prevent constipation. Elderly should participate in the physical exercise as it
helps digestive system making a person stay active and health. The government should make sure that
healthcare services are made available to the old people so that in case they are suffering from
constipation disorders they can get the right medication and advices on how to go about it.
Risks and Hazards of Safe Environment Game
Safe environment games are associated with a number of risks and hazard. The first risk is cyberbullying.
This happens because a person is able to escape real life into an online life where no one knows who
they are, what they look like and where they work or school. Players take advantage of this to grief
other players making the game boring. In some cases grieving turns into cyberbullying which occurs in
the form of whispering to a player directly with harmful and hurtful messages or spamming global chat
channel with abusive comments about a victim. Safe environments games also contribute to privacy
problems (Renn, 2017). This happens because players do not create usernames with their real names
and they don’t give correct information about their age and location. This online gaming nature allows
cybercriminals to be able to manipulate chats and conversations.

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Difficulties Which Attracts Graduate Health Professionals in the Aged Care
Australian aged care sector has been facing a lot of challenges and difficulties which are attracting a lot
of healthcare professional into the sector. Some of these challenges includes high employees turnover
which leads to shortage of staff in the nursing care homes and thus elderly do not have enough staff to
take care of them. Most staffs who are working in this sector have a negative attitudes towards their
work and thus they are not able to deliver quality services to old people in Australia (Lovelock &
Patterson, 2015). Due to increased need for dementia care for older people many graduates are thus
attracted to this sector. Aged care sector is facing challenges in attracting young graduate’s healthcare
professional. Aged care sector is trying to improve its services and make them accessible to all the older
people in Australia in remote and rural areas thus it needs a lot of staff to be able to offer services to the
old people (Chenoweth, Merlyn, Jeon, Tait & Duffield, 2014). However, a number of strategies have
been implemented to overcome the challenges faced in the aged care sector. For nursing care homes
with an inadequate number of care givers, the government has ensured employment of more
professional healthcare workers to those organizations to ensure that care givers are not overworked.

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Bibliography
Chenoweth, L., Merlyn, T., Jeon, Y.H., Tait, F. and Duffield, C., 2014. Attracting and retaining qualified
nurses in aged and dementia care: outcomes from an A ustralian study. Journal of Nursing
Management, 22(2), pp.234-247.
Clegg, A., Young, J., Iliffe, S., Rikkert, M.O. and Rockwood, K., 2013. Frailty in elderly people. The
lancet, 381(9868), pp.752-762.
Coggrave, M. and Norton, C., 2013. Management of faecal incontinence and constipation in adults with
central neurological diseases. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (12).
Cordier, R. and Wilson, N.J., 2013. Community-based Men's Sheds: promoting male health, wellbeing
and social inclusion in an international context. Health promotion international, 29(3), pp.483-493.
Eric De Jonge, K., Jamshed, N., Gilden, D., Kubisiak, J., Bruce, S.R. and Taler, G., 2014. Effects of home‐
based primary care on Medicare costs in high‐risk elders. Journal of the American Geriatrics
Society, 62(10), pp.1825-1831.
Feng, W., Liu, R. and Zhu, M., 2014. Fall detection for elderly person care in a vision-based home
surveillance environment using a monocular camera. Signal, Image and Video Processing, 8(6), pp.1129-
1138.onments. Personal and ubiquitous computing, 17(8), pp.1699-1707.
Kim, S.C., Jeong, Y.S. and Park, S.O., 2013. RFID-based indoor location tracking to ensure the safety of
the elderly in smart home envir
Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., 2015. Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Milligan, C., Dowrick, C., Payne, S., Hanratty, B., Irwin, P., Neary, D. and Richardson, D., 2013. Men's
Sheds and other gendered interventions for older men: improving health and wellbeing through social
activity-a systematic review and scoping of the evidence base. Lancaster: Lancaster University Centre for
Ageing Research.
Renn, O., 2017. Risk governance: coping with uncertainty in a complex world. Routledge.
Schön, D.A., 2017. The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Routledge.

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Wilson, N.J., Cordier, R., Doma, K., Misan, G. and Vaz, S., 2015. Men's Sheds function and philosophy:
towards a framework for future research and men's health promotion. Health promotion journal of
Australia, 26(2), pp.133-141.