Reflection Report: Community Engagement and Aged Care Placement

This report reflects on a student's community engagement experience during a placement at Northaven Retirement Village, an aged care facility. The report identifies the needs of the aged residents, including assistance with daily tasks, personal care, and addressing family problems. It discusses the application of the unconditional positive regard theory in providing a supportive environment for the residents. Recommendations for improving community engagement include retrospective monitoring and the use of electronic care management applications. The placement experience highlighted the importance of mutual respect, quality care, teamwork, and understanding the rights of the elderly. The report concludes by emphasizing the role of community engagement in addressing the needs of vulnerable groups and creating a genuine and supportive environment in aged care facilities.

Running head: RELECTION ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Reflection on Community Engagement
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1RELECTION ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Community Engagement refers to the process of working in a collaborative manner
which can help in addressing issues related to well-being of a group. The process of
community engagement can help an individual in gaining knowledge about the disadvantaged
section living in the community. An aged care facility helps in providing accommodation
along with support to the frail along with aged people. Uniting Northaven is located on the
Upper North Shore of Sydney that is instrumental in providing aged care service to the
customers (Agedcareonline.com.au 2018). This essay discusses about the audience or the
customer whom I had to serve at the time of my placement in Northaven Retirement Village.
It elaborates on the needs of the clients in the aged care facility. The essay suggests
recommendations that can help in improving the aspect of community engagement in the
aged care facility in Northaven Retirement Village in Turramurra in which I was placed.
The community of the people whom I had to serve at the time of my placement were
the aged customers of Northaven Retirement Village who needed some kind of support
owing to lack of people around them who can mete out proper care to them. At the time of
my placement. I had to serve meals and do the cleaning services in the aged care facility. The
customers to whom I had to render service at the time of placement were the people who
needed extra help in relation to performing the daily tasks. I had to attend to the old people
who had family problems that caused them to take refuge in the aged care facility. The
customer served by me during placement were the people who needed personal care and
medication care (Case and Zeglen 2018). The aged people who faced problems in managing
their heath and performing the daily activities were the people who were offered help at the
time of my placement in the popular aged care facility. The lives of the aged people were
made easier in Northaven Retirement Village as there were other people who could provide
them with the support that they needed (Baldus, Voorhees and Calantone 2015).

2RELECTION ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The needs of the clients that were addressed at the time of my placement pertains to day
therapy along with housing assistance. There are people who live in the insecure
accommodation and is at a risk of that of homelessness and Northaven Retirement Village
helps in addressing the needs of these people. The clients needed help in relation to personal
care service like showering that led them to use the service of Northaven Retirement Village
(Habibi, Laroche and Richard 2014). The need of the client was in relation to household tasks
along with that of transport. I served the clients by providing them with clinical care service
like nursing and physiotherapy.
The unconditional positive regard theory related to community engagement states that
an individual should be provided with an environment that has genuineness along with
empathy. It can help an individual in staying healthy and provide him with a proper
atmosphere that can keep him happy. I think that this theory was implemented while taking
care of the aged people in Northaven Retirement Village. The theory states that an individual
should be imbibed with the resources that can help him in the aspect of self-understanding.
Unconditional positive regard can make the clients take the responsibility in relation to their
own selves (Kolopack, Parsons and Lavery 2015). The clients in Northaven Retirement
Village are provided with proper psychological treatment that helps in strengthening the
mental condition of the clients. I think that the clients in Northaven retirement Village are
provided with the proper amount of mental support that helps them in adjusting to the
circumstances in their life. There are old people who are in the transitional stage when there
is the on-set of that of ill-health and I think that Northaven Retirement Village provides the
programs that can address the needs of these people. Northaven Retirement Village helps the
clients in the identification of that of the emerging health problems and they are diagnosed at
an early stage that helps these patients greatly. I think that Northaven Retirement Village
encourages development of the self-management skills of the aged people that helps them in

3RELECTION ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
managing symptoms related to the health conditions that they have (O’Mara-Eves et al.
2015). I think that Northaven Retirement Village is successful in provide encouragement to
the old people so that they can continue to perform the daily activities that can help in
maintaining their functional independence. Northaven Retirement Village abides by the
theory pertaining to unconditional positive regard that creates a positive attitude among the
aged people.
I think that retrospective monitoring can be carried out in Northaven Retirement
Village that can help in making judgement in relation to quality of the care provided at
Northaven Retirement Village. It should make use of records along with additional
information that can help them in the aspect of retrospective monitoring. Retrospective
monitoring being implemented in Northaven Retirement Village can help in the identification
of the flaws of the aged care facility that can help the community organisation in getting
success in the long run (Panwar et al. 2016). The aged care facility of Northaven Retirement
Village can take recourse to electronic care management application that can help the people
offering health care in delivering more effective care. It can help in electronic collection of
the information that can help in the aspect of maintaining accuracy pertaining to the records
of the patients in that of the aged care facility.
The placement helped me in learning that mutual respect along with trust are the
crucial elements that the aged people need. I learnt from the placement at Northaven
Retirement Village that quality care should be provided to the old people that can help them
in the aspect of recovery from medication problems. The value that I developed with the help
of my placement was in relation to teamwork and stewardship (Bandy 2016). I was able to
learn that team work can act as a boon for that of aged-care facility that can keep the people
in good spirit. The placement helped me in knowing about rights of elderly community and
the problems that these people face in their everyday existence.

4RELECTION ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Community Engagement is indicative of the process when the people worked
collaboratively that can address needs of the vulnerable group. The clients of Northaven
Retirement Village comprised of the people who were unable to perform daily activities. In
the aged care facility, I had to serve people who were going through family problems that
made them enrol in an aged care facility. The people living in insecure accommodation had to
take the help of Northaven Retirement Village so that they would be well-cared for in the
facility. Unconditional positive regard theory can help in the creation of a creation of an
environment which is genuine in that of aged care facility. It can give rise to a proper
atmosphere that can cater to the needs of the old people who need the help of other people.
Retrospective monitoring should be implemented in Northaven Retirement Village that can
judge quality of care that is provided by it. They can make use of electronic care management
application that can aid in the delivery of effective care to the client within the aged care
facility. Placement arranged at the facility helped me in learning that the quality of mutual
respect is of crucial importance for that of the customers at Northaven Retirement Village
that can help them in staying healthy.

5RELECTION ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
References:
Agedcareonline.com.au (2018). Uniting Northaven Turramurra (Low Care) Residential Aged
Care Turramurra | Aged Care Online. [online] Agedcareonline.com.au. Available at:
https://www.agedcareonline.com.au/residential-aged-care/facilities/uniting-northaven-
turramurra-low-care [Accessed 23 Oct. 2018].
Baldus, B.J., Voorhees, C. and Calantone, R., 2015. Online brand community engagement:
Scale development and validation. Journal of Business Research, 68(5), pp.978-985.
Bandy, J., 2016. What is service learning or community engagement. Center for Teaching,
Vanderbilt University. https://cft. vanderbilt. edu/guides-subpages/teaching-through-
community-engagement.
Case, R.A. and Zeglen, L., 2018. Exploring the ebbs and flows of community engagement:
The pyramid of engagement and water activism in two Canadian communities. Journal of
Community Practice, 26(2), pp.184-203.
Habibi, M.R., Laroche, M. and Richard, M.O., 2014. The roles of brand community and
community engagement in building brand trust on social media. Computers in Human
Behavior, 37, pp.152-161.
Kolopack, P.A., Parsons, J.A. and Lavery, J.V., 2015. What makes community engagement
effective?: lessons from the eliminate dengue program in Queensland Australia. PLoS
neglected tropical diseases, 9(4), p.e0003713.
O’Mara-Eves, A., Brunton, G., Oliver, S., Kavanagh, J., Jamal, F. and Thomas, J., 2015. The
effectiveness of community engagement in public health interventions for disadvantaged
groups: a meta-analysis. BMC public health, 15(1), p.129.

6RELECTION ON COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Panwar, R., Nybakk, E., Hansen, E. and Pinkse, J., 2016. The effect of small firms'
competitive strategies on their community and environmental engagement. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 129, pp.578-585.