Industry reviews accreditation process
Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) chief executive officer, Greg Mundy, has released a submission to the Department of Health and Ageing’s Review of the Accreditation process.
ACSA calls for a thorough analysis of the four main areas covering standards including the 44 “expected outcomes” against which facilities are assessed.
Mr Mundy said that the review had to define and measure what is important to the older people who live in residential care. He said quality indicators need to be based on the entire population of people living in aged care, including those with dementia or receiving palliative care.
“The lack of an individual’s choice in entering residential care, and associated family guilt, which impacts on how people view their care must also be taken into consideration,” Mr Mundy said.
“This marks a significant shift from the existing system which is process based and largely ignores quality of life or service outcomes”.
Mr Mundy said it was imperative that the accreditation system focus on positive reinforcement as opposed to the current negative and punitive approach to compliance.
“Aged care must be about caring for older Australians not an endless list of self-defeating regulations which inhibit and sometimes preclude optimum care,” he said.
Mr Mundy said the standards by which Australia’s aged care homes are assessed for accreditation also need to be addressed.
“This is an important review. However the review findings should be combined with a rigorous assessment of the standards and used to develop a robust accreditation scheme which is independent, transparent and provides consistent results,” he said.
ACSA’s submission is available at http://www.agedcare.org.au
