Research Proposal: Evaluating Aged Care Homes and Resident Outcomes

This research proposal examines the impact of different care approaches in aged care homes on the quality of life of elderly residents. The study aims to analyze the significance of aged care homes in providing care, considering gender imbalances and the effects of various care provision methods. It outlines the research questions, methodology (including both qualitative and quantitative data collection from Australian aged care homes), and a time plan. The research intends to explore the positive and negative implications of these approaches on elderly residents, taking into account individual traits and characteristics. The proposal also addresses ethical considerations and concludes with the significance of the research in improving the wellbeing of the increasing elderly population, proposing recommendations to enhance the infrastructure and care provision in aged care homes.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Aim of the Research........................................................................................................................3
Significance of the research.............................................................................................................4
Simplified Project Description........................................................................................................5
Background......................................................................................................................................5
Gender Imbalances..........................................................................................................................7
Rationale of the project....................................................................................................................8
Research Plan...................................................................................................................................8
Research Questions......................................................................................................................8
Research Methodology................................................................................................................9
Time Plan...................................................................................................................................10
Ethical Considerations...............................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Over the years, the global population has experienced considerable dynamics in every
aspects of life, including the way of living, needs and requirements as well as in terms of the
overall age demography. The age structure of the population has also changed with time, with
the international demographic characteristics showing an increasing bias towards the elderly
population (Kulik et al., 2014). In the last few decades, the population of the world, in general, is
showing an increasing inclination towards the age group of 60 years and above and the same
sector of the population is projected to increase even more in the coming years, as can be seen
from the following figure:
Figure 1: Increasing burden of old age population in the world
(Source: Pharmacytimes.com, 2018)
Along with the increasing share of old age population across the globe, the changing
lifestyles and other externalities are also contributing in changing the types of problems, mental

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as well as physical, that are experienced by the elderly population of the world, with the
problems becoming increasingly complex. Given this scenario, it can be asserted that in the
recent times as well as in the coming years, one of the primary concerns in global framework is
expected to be the provision of proper care and a healthy environment for the elderly people in
the different countries (Rashidi & Mihailidis, 2013).
In this aspect, the concept of aged care homes has been becoming increasingly relevant
and widespread in all the corners of the world. The concept of aged care homes had been there
for long. However, with time and changing needs of the increasing elderly population, the
domain of operations and the approaches of provision of services of the aged care homes have
also been changing (Alldred et al., 2013). Keeping this into consideration, the concerned
research proposes to analyze and observe the impacts of the different approaches of care
provision to the elders in the aged care homes on the quality of life of the elderly residents of the
same, taking into account the changes in the needs as well as the service structure of these aged
care homes.
Aim of the Research
Keeping the aspects of increasing demands for comprehensive care for the elderly
population across the globe, the concerned research proposes to study the significance of the old
age care homes in the aspect of provision of such cares to the old age population. In the light of
the same, it also tries to analyze how the different approaches of care provision impacts the old
age population in the aged care homes, taking into account the gender imbalances (if any)
present in this respect.

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Significance of the research
In the contemporary period, as discussed in the above section, the old age population is
seen to be increasing considerably across the globe and the projections of the increase in the
same is even high in the coming years. In this context, one of the major concerns of the policy
makers as well as of that of the societies as a whole is the issue of provision of a quality life to
the elderly population (Tesch-Roemer, 2012). This issue has to be emphasized upon so that the
life expectancy, vulnerabilities, insecurities and other challenges faced by the elderly population
can be taken into account and addressed accordingly. In this aspect, the domain of operations of
different old age care homes and other residential care facilities for the elderly population have
been increasing in the global scenario.
The presence of the reduction in the family size and increasing existence of nuclear
families, along with the changing needs, both physical as well as others, makes caring for elderly
people a difficult and continuous process, thereby, making it difficult for the working individuals
to take of their elderly family members. These contribute even more in the increase in the
demand as well as supply of the aged care homes across the globe (Parihar et al., 2017).
However, the impacts of stays in the aged care homes are not always positive on the elderly
populations and the impacts vary according to the approaches taken by the elderly care homes
and also according to the individual characteristics of the residents in these homes. Addressing
these issues becomes considerably important in the current scenario, in order to contribute
positively in the aspects of improving the quality of life of the increasing elderly population in
the world (Böckerman, Johansson & Saarni, 2012). This in turn increases the significance of the
concerned project as it proposes to explore the aspects of impacts of the different approaches of
old age care homes on the overall life of the residents.

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Simplified Project Description
The concerned project tries to analyze the different approaches of care provision, which
are taken by the aged care homes in general across the world, with the dynamics in the
qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of the aged populations. The concerned research also
tries to study the positive as well as the negative implications of the approaches on the elderly
people who tend to avail these services, taking into consideration their individual traits and
characteristic differences. To study the same the project aims to collect primary data, both
qualitative as well as quantitative, from the residents as well as care providers of several aged
care homes in Australia. The project proposes to analyze these data in the light of the rising
concern regarding health care and other care provision to the elderly population. It also tries to
recommend steps and measures, which can be implemented to make the overall infrastructure
and care provision of the aged care homes more contributing to the increase in the welfare of the
elderly population as a whole.
Background
The notion of aged care homes has been prevalent in the global scenario for last few
decades. However, in the previous years, the provision of such old age care homes were mainly
done by the governing authorities of a country in order to reduce the age related vulnerabilities of
the elderly population, especially the underprivileged and ignored ones. However, with time and
with an increasing aging population, across the world, the needs for the old age population have
changed considerably, much of which calls for better infrastructures and timely service provision
(Spijker & MacInnes, 2013). The purchasing power of the contemporary old age population has
also increased in general along with their demands. The disease patterns, life style issues and

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other complications have also increased the need for comprehensive and always available care
providers for the elderly population, which cannot be always be provided by the nuclear families.
All these have contributed in the growth of the operations of the old aged care homes
across the world, with the private sectors infiltrating increasingly in this sector. This has led to
considerable changes not only in the number of the aged care homes across the world, especially
in the developed and high developing countries, but has also led to incorporation of newer
approaches of providing care and inclusion of newer types of facilities for the elderly population
who choose to avail these residential services.
There have been substantial literary evidences regarding the changes in the approaches of
the services provided by the aged care homes in the international scenario. Most of the literatures
assert towards the fact that the services provided by the aged care homes in the previous periods
used to be basic and limited to provision of health care and nursing facilities, thereby catering to
only the broad age related health issues and insecurities of the aged population (Leibing &
Cohen, 2018). However, with time and increased commercialization of this sector, the quality of
such residential care accommodations has increased considerably, with facilities like clean
rooms, toilets, room heating and personalized attentions increasingly becoming considered as
common amenities provided in standard aged care homes.
The approaches of provision of care to the elderly people coming to reside in these
facilities have also become varied. The care provision not only remains constricted to the
facilities of health care and nursing but also includes the aspects of more warm and humane
behavior of the staffs, increase in the number of services, emphasizing both on the health related
issues as well as issues like mental crisis, depression, loneliness of these elderly residents.

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Gender Imbalances
Another aspect, which has been observed in this context, is that there exists a discrepancy
in the pattern of availing these aged care services, in the respect of inequalities, both with respect
to different age groups as well as in respect to genders.
Figure 2: Gender and age wise distribution of aged care home population (BUPA)
(Source: Cpa.org.uk, 2018)

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As is evident from the above tables, showing the population demography of the residents
in the BUPA aged care homes, the percentage of female residents’ increases with the increase in
the age and the same is vice versa for the male old age population. This thereby indicates
towards the presence of gender-based discrepancies in the terms of availability of the services of
the aged care homes in general (Misra, Lundquist & Templer, 2012, June).
Rationale of the project
With the changes and inclusions of new approaches, which are being implemented by the
aged care homes across the world, especially in the developed countries where the problem of
increasing old age population is more acute, it becomes necessary to study in depth the impacts
of such services on the elderly population. It also becomes necessary to diagnose the hurdles and
problems faced by the demand side as well as the supply side, in availing and providing the
services respectively in order to increase the scope and feasibility of such aged care homes in the
face of growing old age population in the world. The research also proposes to explore the issue
of the presence of gender imbalances in the aspect of availing the services of the aged care
homes.
Research Plan
Based on the above discussion the concerned research proposes to venture in this domain
in order to explore the impacts of the usage of different approaches, clinical as well as overall
ones on the people availing the services.
Research Questions
The primary question, which the concerned research proposes to enquire about, is as follows:

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What are the impacts of the different approaches incorporated in the aged care homes on the
health and overall welfare condition of the elderly populations availing these services?
The other questions, which the research proposes to address, are as follows:
 Which sectors of the elderly population are most benefitted by these services?
 Which sectors of the elderly population are lease benefited from the same?
 What are the different approaches and what are their implications?
 What are the perceptions of the clients regarding the pros and cons of the approaches?
 What changes can be done to increase the applicability and feasibility of the aged care
homes as an option for better lifestyle of the elderly population in Australia?
 What are the affordability issues and how can these be solved?
Research Methodology
For studying the above-mentioned aspects, the research proposes to collect primary data
from several aged care homes in Australia, taking into account the views of both the residents as
well as the service providers in these residential care facilities. The project aims to assess the
data collected both in terms of quantitative as well as qualitative methods. The quantitative
methods are proposed to be incorporated in order to make the analysis a widespread one,
inclusive of large samples (Zohrabi, 2013). On the other keeping the aspect of the importance of
ordinal and abstract information in consideration, the research aims to perform in depth
interviews with a number of selected individuals and analyze the data collected with relevant
qualitative methods.
Time Plan
Sequential Week 1 Week 2 and 3 Week 4 and 5 Week 6 & 7

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Activities by
Week
Ideation of the
project

Literature
Review Research
Design

Collection of the
requisite data
 
Analysis and
interpretation of
collected data

Publication of the
paper

Ethical Considerations
To carry out any research efficiently and productively, it is of immense importance to
take into consideration the ethical issues and regulations that are present in the research
framework. Considering this, the concerned research proposes to abide by the ethical standards
present in this respect. It emphasizes on the aspects of asking for consent from the concerned

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respondents and also asserts on maintaining confidentiality of the people interviewed. The
research also proposes to start the activities only after receiving approval from the ethical board
of the concerned institution (Faden et al., 2013).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be asserted that the above discussion that the issue of
increasing burden of aged population is becoming one of the rising issues of concern in the
global scenario. With the increase in the old age population as well as with the increase in the
complexity of demands of the same, the approaches and roles of the old age care homes have
also been changing globally. In this context, it becomes important to explore the impacts of the
different types of approaches of the health and other care provisions on the overall welfare of the
elderly population. The concerned research proposes to explore these aspects, with the help of
data collected from the Australian aged care homes and aims to recommend amendments in the
current infrastructures present in this aspect.

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References
Alldred, D. P., Raynor, D. K., Hughes, C., Barber, N., Chen, T., & Spoor, P. (2013).
Interventions to optimise prescribing for older people in care homes. Cochrane Database
of Systematic Reviews, (2).
Böckerman, P., Johansson, E., & Saarni, S. I. (2012). Institutionalisation and subjective
wellbeing for old-age individuals: is life really miserable in care homes?. Ageing &
Society, 32(7), 1176-1192.
Cpa.org.uk. (2018). The changing role of care homes. Cpa.org.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2018,
from http://www.cpa.org.uk/information/reviews/changingroleofcarehomes.pdf
Faden, R. R., Kass, N. E., Goodman, S. N., Pronovost, P., Tunis, S., & Beauchamp, T. L. (2013).
An ethics framework for a learning health care system: a departure from traditional
research ethics and clinical ethics. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1).
Kulik, C. T., Ryan, S., Harper, S., & George, G. (2014). Aging populations and
management. Academy of Management Journal, 57(4), 929-935.
Leibing, A., & Cohen, L. (2018). Thinking about dementia: Culture, loss, and the anthropology
of senility. Rutgers University Press.
Misra, J., Lundquist, J. H., & Templer, A. (2012, June). Gender, work time, and care
responsibilities among faculty. In Sociological Forum (Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 300-323).
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Parihar, K. S., Dahiya, R., Billaiya, R., & Jain, P. (2017). Effect of Nuclear Family in
Participation of Activities. International Journal of Health Sciences (IJHS), 1(1), 28-35.

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Pharmacytimes.com. (2018). The Aging Population: The Increasing Effects on Health
Care. Pharmacytimes.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018, from
http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2016/january2016/the-aging-
population-the-increasing-effects-on-health-care
Rashidi, P., & Mihailidis, A. (2013). A survey on ambient-assisted living tools for older
adults. IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics, 17(3), 579-590.
Spijker, J., & MacInnes, J. (2013). Population ageing: the timebomb that isn’t?. BMJ, 347,
f6598.
Tesch-Roemer, C. (2012). Active ageing and quality of life in old age. UN.
Zohrabi, M. (2013). Mixed method research: Instruments, validity, reliability and reporting
findings. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(2), 254.