Aged care facilities less bleak than public perceives
In 2012 the Menzies-Nous Australian Health Survey asked 1,200 Australians to rate different components of the health care system, including residential aged care. This survey generated some disappointing results, with just 26% of people rating residential aged care facilities as excellent or good. Not surprisingly, given that the respondents were surveyed from the general population, a large proportion (26%) of the responses were recorded as ‘Don’t know’.
In 2012 the Menzies-Nous Australian Health Survey asked 1,200 Australians to rate different components of the health care system, including residential aged care.
This survey generated some disappointing results, with just 26% of people rating residential aged care facilities as excellent or good. Not surprisingly, given that the respondents were surveyed from the general population, a large proportion (26%) of the responses were recorded as ‘Don’t know’.
However, even rescaling for this segment, only 36% of the respondents who recorded an answer other than ‘Don’t know’ regard residential aged care facilities as excellent or good. Just over 27% of the respondents regard them as bad or very bad and the remaining 37% of respondents consider them OK or have a neutral perception.
Disheartening though these results are, Moving on Audits’ data suggests that the public’s perception may be out of sync with the people living in residential care facilities. Using data from our two most recent resident surveys we found from nearly 4,000 responses that 93.5% of residents agree or strongly agree with the statement ‘I am generally happy here’, and 93.3% of respondents agree or strongly agree with the statement ‘I am satisfied with my daily life in the home’.
Side-by-side, the comparison of the two survey results is stark. In my mind, the Menzie-Nous report, rather than indicating that poor quality of care is endemic in our residential aged care facilities, has merely highlighted that residential aged care is suffering from poor PR.
The media’s bias to bad news reporting in aged care is undoubtedly contributing to this disconnect between the residents’ views and public perceptions.
Swimming against this tide, it’s the responsibility of all of us to spread the good news stories, and indeed the truth, as far and wide as we can.
By Dr Lahn Straney
Statistician at Moving on Audits
