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Sharing our best aged care practice with world

China’s model of care for the elderly is based around a medical approach and not focused on the needs of each individual, according to a Victorian aged care provider.

<p>Ian Barton, deputy chief executive of Southern Cross Care Victoria, with staff at China's Changchun Community Centre.</p>

Ian Barton, deputy chief executive of Southern Cross Care Victoria, with staff at China's Changchun Community Centre.

Ian Barton, deputy chief executive of Southern Cross Care Victoria (SCCV), made the statement on reflection of a 12 day study tour to China’s Changchun Medical College and Be Loved Nursing Home.

SCCV sent a delegation of 10 staff to China to share Australian best practice in aged care. Mr Barton, who led the delegation, said the tour had provided them with a new perspective on the level of aged care between the two countries.

With the number of elderly people increasing at an accelerating pace in China, there is a need for an adequately skilled and qualified workforce to cope with the demands of an ageing population.

“From evidence gained during our visit to Changchun, we found that the Chinese providers have yet to develop individual care plans. They know very little about people living with dementia, and instead treating them as having a mental illness,” Mr Barton said.

“Decades of one child policy has left China with a profound socio-economic challenge to take care of a rapidly ageing population. While there has been a growth spurt in the number of nursing homes across China in recent years, they are mostly unregulated, privately owned, and do not receive the level of government funding and support that we see in Australia.”

According to Mr Barton, some of China’s care practices seem to be “lagging” about 15 years behind Australian standards, which is evident when looking at their manual handling practices, occupational health and safety, and infection control practices.

“Their model of care is still based around a medical approach and is not focused on the needs of each individual,” Mr Barton said.

Changchun, a city of 7.5 million people in the northeast of China, faces a rapidly ageing population like the rest of the country. The number of people trained in aged care is still lacking, and many of those involved in the provision of services to older people are not fully qualified as aged care professionals.

Mr Barton said having an adequately skilled workforce in aged care is vital to addressing China’s ageing population.

According to the China National Committee of Ageing, the country’s people aged 60 and above are expected to hit 487 million people in 2053, or 34% of the population, compared to the current 12%.

“In a country famous for its Confucian traditions of filial obedience, we are impressed by how respectful they are towards older people. What they lack in their experience and knowledge of aged care, they compensate by their eagerness to learn and implement ideas quickly – which we found remarkable.

“While we were able to pass on our knowledge to them, we have equally learnt a lot from them. Aged care may be at its infancy in China, but there are things that the Chinese do better than us that we should emulate, particularly their focus on large gardens in their nursing homes,” Mr Barton said.

In Changchun, the SCCV team saw wide expanses of gardens as a main feature in the aged care homes they visited. Irrespective of their mobility and dexterity, residents were seen using the gardens for walks or tai chi, or working in self sufficient gardens.

“In fact, we were amazed to see a number of residents over 100 years old enjoying the gardens,” Mr Barton said.

SCCV’s China Exchange Program was launched as part of the organisation’s 45th anniversary.

The pilot program saw eight staff being picked from the organisation’s residential and community services to visit Be Loved Nursing Home and Changchun Medical College in Changchun, China.

The study group, comprising care workers, nurses and managers, spent 12 days with the Chinese providers to share the organisation’s best practice in aged care across various areas including palliative care, quality management, tailoring lifestyle programs for individual needs and working with people living with dementia.

 A delegation from China is expected to visit Australia in early May next year.

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