Experts respond to recommendations by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety released its final report, Care, Dignity and Respect earlier this year.
The report recommends that palliative care to be considered core business for aged care providers. This would include regular dementia and palliative care training as a requirement of approval for all aged care providers.
This training would be applicable to all workers who are involved in direct contact with people seeking or receiving services in the aged care system.
While experts welcome this recommendation, they also say that it’s not enough.
In an interview with Holly Payne, author at The Medical Republic (TMR), Professor Meera Agar, Director of IMPACCT and chair of the Palliative Care Australia Board, warns that the core problem will likely remain.
Situations like this, according to Professor Agar, wouldn’t necessarily be addressed by more widespread training because the core issue is workforce shortage.
“Sometimes upskilling one part of the workforce worsens the problem, because then from a moral perspective none of those clinicians can leave the person in the aged care home overnight, because they know that person’s not going to be able to receive the care,” she told The Medical Republic.
“Paradoxically, putting in part of the solution and not the full solution could mean hospital admissions go up.”
Read the full story here: Half-solutions worse than nothing in aged care via The Medical Republic [opens external link]
Find out more about Palliative Care research or study options at UTS.