A Comprehensive View of Health and Socio-Political Issues in Aged Care

This essay provides an overview of the health and socio-political issues in aged care, focusing on the Australian context. It discusses the increasing aged population and the government's shift towards the Consumer Directed Care (CDC) model, which aims to provide flexibility and control to elderly individuals in managing their care plans. The essay examines the political perspective of the CDC model, including funding challenges and the need for increased aged care providers. It also addresses legal and ethical considerations, referencing the Aged Care Act of 1997 and emphasizing the importance of adhering to ethical principles and avoiding negligence in care provision. The essay concludes by highlighting the government's commitment to addressing challenges in the aged care system and ensuring quality care for all elderly citizens, including those in remote areas.

Running head: HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE 1
Health And Socio-Political Issues In Aged Care
Name
Institution

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HEALTH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES IN AGED CARE
Introduction
The population of the aged in Australia is high, and the government has started to show
concern for this. The aged in the country are faced with challenges of care, and the government
wants to make sure that they can sustain the care system for them in the coming years. As the
population is increasing, the concern for the overall care and safety of the old is rising as well.
The Australian government is concerned with ensuring that this population is taken care of in
terms of wellness, safety, and aged care. According to research, the elderly population is
expected to be twice what it is now in the year 2050.
In the past Australia has been using other models for care of the elderly such as the
Community based services as well as the traditional provider-directed care. The government,
however, decided to change this as they wanted to ensure that the elderly population was
receiving the optimal care that they deserved. This made way for the Consumer Directed model.
In this model, the Australian government pays for most of the services offered while the rest is
catered for by the consumer out of pocket.
Consumer Directed Care
The Consumer Directed Care model also referred to as the CDC is a care model that aims
at achieving flexibility between both the aged care provider and the elderly who is also the
consumer. The CDC is a service delivery that ensures the consumer has total control of
managing their care plan. The consumer also has a choice in whether they want to manage their
care plan or not.

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The sole focus of the model is on choice where the consumer dictates the services they
want to be rendered as well as the person to provide the services and on control where the
consumer again has complete control over their care. By using this model, the Australian
Government wanted to ensure that their elderly were able to make decisions on their own
therefore giving them a sense of independence. Research showed that most older adults do not
like the idea of being stereotyped as being helpless. The government consequently wanted to
ensure that they were able to get a piece of their independence back (Australia, 2017).
The CDC allows for this independence as the consumer can direct the caregiver on the
type of services they want and how they want it as well. This also includes who can deliver the
care. The CDC model mostly works for the aged with the Home Care Package system, and it
allows them to manage their package. This model has proven to be useful as the consumer is
taken care off in accordance with their needs. Once the elderly states what they need and want
and what they hope to achieve, the care provider follows suit. This leads to customer satisfaction
as the consumer gets everything that they wish to (Baldwin, Chenoweth & dela Rama, 2015).
Most of the elderly population especially those with the home care package have adopted
this model as it allows them to take care of themselves as they have throughout their lives. The
consumer in the case of the CDC model has the ability to:
 State what they want in terms of services, who delivers it and how they provide it.
 Creating a care plan with their aged care provider.
 Choose whether they want to manage their package or not.
 Know the payments involved in the care as well as how the money will be spent.
 Monitor their home care package to establish whether it works for them or not.

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 The provider, on the other hand, is supposed to accomplish the following:
Listen and communicate continuously with their consumer to be aware of their goals and
their needs.
 Come up with care plans that suit the consumer (co-produce it).
 Give all the information to their consumers about the payment involved and how it will
be spent. This creates room for transparency.
 Discuss with the consumer on how much they want them to be involved in managing the
home care package.
From the above, we see that if applied correctly, the CDC model can be useful in
providing the aged with the care that they need (Cash, Moyle & O'dwyer, 2017).
The political view of the CDC model
The Australian citizens are responsible for the funding of the aged care system, through
the taxes that they pay. The government allocates part of these taxes to the aged care system so
that they can provide the financial help to them as most of them are not able to afford it.
However they only pay part of it and the rest, the consumer has to pay for themselves. The
Australian government made this a priority when allocating taxes money as they wanted to be
able to sustain the aged population and their care well into the future (Hume et al., 2015).
The Department of Health in the country ensures that the elderly can receive the care that
they need by appropriately using the funds to provide care of all. However, there have been
claims that the government does not take into account the elderly population living in the remote
areas of the country. There have been claims that these funds are not able to reach such

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audiences due to their location. The people living in the remote areas are therefore not able to
receive care under the CDC model as they cannot be accessed quickly (Temple, Jukic & Dow,
2017).
As some claim that the funding is enough, others claim that it is too little and therefore
not everyone will be able to receive the CDC care. For everyone to receive care based on the
CDC model, the government will have to increase funding which means that the tax rate will
have to increase, unless the Australian government decides to cut the funds allocated to other
sectors so that they can fully support the aged care sector (Hutchinson et al., 2016).
The CDC model is best suited for the home care packages where the elderly can receive
the care they need at the comfort of their home. Most people in Australia own homes and the
government is encouraged to use this to their advantage. This way instead of spending taxes on
building homes for the elderly or community facilities, they will solely focus on providing
consumer-directed care.
The CDC model also requires for the aged care workers to work more extensively and be
flexible than the other models that the country has used. This means that more aged care
providers need to be employed to maintain the work efficiency. The Australian government will
have to increase the number of care providers so that each consumer can get the attention they
need. With the numbers of the elderly spiking in the coming years, the government has to re-
strategize on how they will ensure that each will get the help that they need (Macdonald &
Charlesworth, 2016).
If the government does not take this action, it will find that the aged care providers will
have to stretch to unreasonable limits to provide care. The CDC model especially requires an

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aged care provider to attend to one consumer at a time so that they can provide sufficient care.
Therefore, the government needs to consider this when making plans for implementing the CDC
model fully. Also, the Australian government will need to make sure that by the year 2050 when
the spike in the elderly population is forecast, the care providers will as well have to increase
(Warburton & Mahoney, 2016).
The aged care providers must be professionals that have the training in the CDC model
and can deliver the care that the CDC model requires the workers to deliver. This means
investing in training programmes as well as workshops and seminars for these people (Redfern et
al., 2014).
The Minister in charge of the aged care system in the country promises its citizens that
they will find the solutions to the challenges that the aged care system faces especially when
providing care to people in remote areas or those that do not use the home care package. The
Minister says that they want the model to be used by all elderly persons in the country because as
for now, it is the most effective in accomplishing their strategies of sustaining the sector in the
future (Layton, 2015).
The Minister also assures the citizens that the aged care providers will increase especially
so that they can reach the community-based services in the distant locations. The aged care
providers will be professionally trained to provide care in regards to the CDC model. The
Minister hopes that in the coming future, they will be able to provide consumer-directed care
without any challenges.
Legal and ethical considerations in the CDC model

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The Australian constitution outlines the laws that are to be met when providing the care
for the elderly. These laws are contained in the Aged Care Act of 1997 and clearly, state the
guidelines and rules that care providers need to follow as they provide the care. It is ethical that
care providers abide by these rules and any aged care provider that does not is considered as
unethical as it is not part of their scope of practice. Therefore when providing care based on the
CDC model, the provider needs to ensure that they follow the guidelines of the model as well as
keep the law (Low, Fletcher, Gresham & Brodaty, 2015).
Some of the principles that a caregiver needs to abide by are Allocation Principles 2014,
Quality of Care Principles 2014 and the Sanctions Principles 2014. When providing care the
aged care provider needs to ensure that the services being delivered meet the above principles.
For example, the services need to ensure the safety of both the provider and the consumer and
also that everyone involved in the care has a right to their privacy. Therefore in no instance is the
aged care provider supposed to interfere with one's privacy when providing care (Prgomet et al.,
2017).
One significant right in the act that protects the users is that of negligence. An aged care
provider must provide reasonable care to a consumer and at the same time prevent injury to them
as well as loss. Aged care providers that show negligence can be sued and this can cause them to
lose their license. For example, when using the CDC model, the aged care provider is supposed
to ensure that they perform services as asked for by the consumer. However if the aged care
consumer neglects the risks that a service will cause simply because the consumer asked for it,
then this can be termed as negligence (Macleod, Tatangelo, McCabe & You, 2017).

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This is because the law states that the aged care provider has the capability of guiding the
consumer in the right direction as they can assess the risks. While respecting the request of the
consumer they also need to ensure that they are not breaking the law by being negligent.
Therefore the aged care provider needs to ensure that they maintain the CDC model while
abiding by the law (Goeman, King & Koch, 2016).
Ethically, the consumer care provider is supposed to provide care to the consumer as
expected of them. In the CDC model, the consumer states what type of treatment they need. In
this instance, we can argue that ethically the care provider will be required to follow suit with the
request as his profession requires them to. But also ethically, they can decide to advise the
consumer in the case where the service is chosen is not suited for the consumer as they will incur
risks.
Therefore an aged care provider using the CDC model needs always to do the right thing
regardless of the circumstances while at the same time, maintain the respect between them and
the consumer. This built trust between the aged caregiver and the consumer and they can work
together for adequate care. As much as the Australian government wants to use the CDC model
in providing proper care, then they need to ensure that their aged care providers are also acting
ethically and in accordance with the law (Willis, Reynolds & Keleher, 2016).
Advantages of the CDC
The CDC model has proven to be very useful in providing aged care for the elderly in
Australia. Some of its benefits are:
The model allows the consumer to choose and control the services they want to receive.
The CDC model is solely focused on attending to the needs of the consumer. Therefore it gives

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them the option to choose as well as control these services. This way, aged care providers are
entirely able to focus on providing the services rather than identifying.
The model allows for transparency among all the participants in the care plan. This is
because, in the CDC model, the aged care provider is supposed to share with the consumer about
the payments made for the care package as well as how the money will be spent. This also builds
trust between them.
The CDC model also allows the elderly to be independent just as they have been
throughout their life. This is because the elderly have a choice to manage their plans as well as
create the plans and therefore have a say in their care (Meagher, Szebehely & Mears, 2016).
The model ensures that the needs and the wants of the consumer are met. This is because
in the model the elderly is the one who dictates the services they will receive based on their
needs.
Disadvantages of the model
As much as the CDC model is effective, it has some disadvantages which include:
The CDC model cannot be used by all the elderly persons in Australia as the funding
from the taxpayer money is not enough. This has been caused by the rise in the population of the
elderly, and therefore not everyone can receive it causing others to pay on their own (Fine &
Davidson, 2018).
The model does not take into account all cases of the aged as not all can make choices of
their own. For example, the elderly with conditions such as dementia and disability are unable to
use the model (Meissner & Radford, 2015).

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Lastly, the model does not take into account the risks that are involved in letting the
consumer create their care plan. The services that the consumer wants to be delivered may have
risks and may also not be effective.
Issues related to the CDC model.
Some of the issues that the CDC model faces are
The CDC model requires the aged care providers to focus their attention and energy on
one patient and the Australian government does not have this amount of workforce at the
moment. For the country to achieve the use of this model, they need to consider increasing their
workforce so that consumer-directed care can be effectively applied. The government also needs
to consider the increasing elderly population meaning the workforce also has to increase if they
want to provide CDC.
The CDC model only suits consumers that have the home care package. The model will
most effectively work when it's elderly choose the home care package. This is because their
homes are easily accessible and the services they want can be comfortably done at home when
they cannot be done in a community facility (Radford & Chapman, 2015).
Also in the country, the CDC services do not reach the elderly in the remote areas, and
this is an issue of the model. The model requires easy access so that the aged care providers can
work to and fro without any difficulties. Therefore it is impossible to provide CDC care to
citizens living in the remote areas of the country.

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The CDC model puts a strain on the aged care providers primarily in the country as the
workforce is not sufficient. The aged care providers will be overworked as the model requires
close attention and constant care (Kelly, Sampson & Kelly, 2015).
Also, the model does not consider the different ways of aging. How one person will age
is not the same as another, and this will determine how independent they can be. For instance, if
a consumer ages and had Alzheimer's or dementia then they are not able to apply the model to
their care as they are not physically or mentally able to make the choices on their own (Meyer et
al., 2018).
This gives rise to another issue where the model only allows the consumer to have choice
and control. The model needs to be more flexible by extending this choice to family members or
person's close to the consumer. This way when they are incapable of identifying their needs or
the goals they want to achieve due to aging conditions such as dementia, the decision can be
made for them (Davis, Morgans & Burgess, 2016).
The CDC model has a lot of grey areas, and this is another issue. The model solely
focuses on flexibility for the consumer as well as the aged care provider but does not put into
perspective other factors. Some of these factors include the condition of the consumer, the risks
that might occur and the environmental situations of the elderly. This, therefore, means that the
model can only be applied under circumstances that it can relate with and ignores all the other
(Andrew et al., 2016).
Lastly, the CDC model allows the consumers to make choices of their care plans and
services, and at times the choices are not practical. Also, the choices may involve a lot of risks,
and the care provider may find it difficult to communicate this with their consumers. The CDC

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12
needs to address this issue so that the requests that are made are practical and can be easily
accomplished to provide care (Armstrong et al., 2017).
Conclusion
The Australian government has adopted the use of the consumer-directed care model so
that they can sustain their aged care sector. The government pays for most of the care, but the
elderly pay for the rest on their own. The Australian government aims at doubling their aged care
providers to meet the increasing population of the elderly. They hope that this will help in
providing adequate care for the elderly. In conclusion, the hope that with the adoption of the
CDC model the aged care sector will improve and be sustained.