Older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people receiving aged care services experience a significant burden of grief and loss because of accumulated unresolved trauma. Under the aged care quality standards, organisations are required to meet the wellbeing needs of their clients. Currently, the aged care system fails to recognise the holistic, unique cultural and social and emotional wellbeing needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and therefore does not adequately meet their needs.
The Home Care Packages (HCP) Program aims to support people to live longer at home and optimise wellbeing in accordance with their needs. Services that can be purchased with HCP funding is the same for all clients, yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients experience a discord between the services available under these rules compared to what is needed to support their wellbeing. Furthermore, HCP Program staff have limited social and emotional wellbeing supports available to assist their clients and themselves.
It is necessary to understand the needs of staff delivering care to be able to support them appropriately so they can effectively care for their clients and themselves. In this project we are partnering with the major provider of aged care services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in South Australia.
Aim 1:
a) To identify perspectives of social and emotional wellbeing and quality of life of older Aboriginal people and understand the supports they require by interviewing 15 Elders receiving services under the HCP Program. The interviews focus on what makes Elders feel strong and well in heart and spirit, and how these are sustained or could be sustained in their life through the HCP Program services.
b) To understand how to support the wellbeing of staff by holding a focus group with staff who deliver the HCP Program. The focus group discussion centres on their understanding of clients' social and emotional wellbeing needs, professional training needs and how they can be supported within their workplace to ensure quality of care to clients Analysis: Data from the two groups will be aggregated separately and thematically analysed.
Aim 2: To inform service responses required to meet the social and emotional wellbeing needs of older Aboriginal people and HCP Program staff. Using the results from Aim 1a, indicators of how the HCP program meets wellbeing for older Aboriginal people will be developed. These will be returned to the participants for further input and validation.
Through a comparative analysis we will compare and contrast the scope of services accessible through the Program with the wellbeing needs and aspirations of older Aboriginal people.
A desktop review of available employee supports in response to the results of Aim 1b, will be undertaken.
The findings of this project will directly inform the services needed r to best support the wellbeing of their clients who experience a significant burden of grief and loss and the staff who are looking after such clients. Furthermore, we aim to provide evidence for advocating for system and policy change, particularly with regards to home based aged care services.