It’s a family affair

A La Trobe University study has found that low level aged care facilities need to create environments that are helpful to the establishment and maintenance of constructive staff-family relationships.

Professor Rhonda Nay and Dr Michael Bauer from La Trobe’s Australian Centre for Evidence Based Aged Care (ACEBAC) highlight in the study a number of practice considerations for care staff to foster relationship-centred care with families in low level aged care facilities.

“Much of what we know about staff-family relationships in residential care has been derived from nursing homes, where care is focused on more complex resident needs,” Professor Nay says.

The study, Improving family–staff relationships in assisted living facilities: the views of family, found that there is potential for family and staff to work more “creatively” together.

“[Family and staff] should work together, not only during the admission period, but in the longer term to help form enduring and positive relationships, with the view to helping the resident and the family better integrate into the life of the facility,” Professor Nay recommends.

The study reviewed aged care facilities in metropolitan Melbourne to examine the views of family members though a series of interviews. Researchers focussed on the ways in which staff-family relations could be strengthened for the benefit of the resident.

Professor Nay claims strengthening the relationships between staff and family will provide a “continuum of care” to ensure residents will not need to relocate to a high level care facility when their needs increase.

Dr Bauer says collaboration with the willing family is important in the care of the older person.

“Previous work in nursing homes has shown staff-family relationships are often ambiguous. Relatively little is known about the issue of staff-family relationships in assisted living (low care) facilities,” he says.

Low care facilities are an integral part of the Australian residential aged care system and are owned and operated by a combination of private, state government, community based, or religious and charitable service providers.

This type of facility is often suited to older people who are generally able to move about independently and require only limited supervision and assistance with personal care activities such as hygiene, meals and toileting.

“Strategies to support families and staff, as well as optimising the care for residents, can be developed through systems and processes that encourage and support family inclusion in decision-making,” Dr Bauer says.

He says this is required to ensure the “feel” of a facility, which is known to be an important aspect to families of residents, is translated into everyday practice.

The study also reveals participating family carers share a common goal of wanting to work in partnership with staff for the care of the resident. By doing so, family carers are able to “engage with the facility more effectively and ensure the care needs of the resident are being met”.

“Engaging the family in the residential care setting is generally acknowledged to be important in the care of the older person. Negotiating collaboratively the roles families and staff will adopt, and providing information packs to assist families making the transition to care, demonstrate that families are valued members of the team,” Dr Bauer says.

Of the 157,607 older people receiving care in Australian residential care homes, 31.5% reside in low level care facilities.

Do you think aged care facilities need to create environments that are helpful to maintaining staff-family relationships? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.