Warburton Jeni, Cowan Suzanne, Savy Pauline, MacPhee Fiona
John Richards Initiative, Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University, Wodonga, Victoria, Australia.
Integrated Aged Care Assessment Service, Ovens and King Community Health Service, Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia.
Australas J Ageing. 2015 Sep;34(3):177-82. doi: 10.1111/ajag.12173.
Recent National Aged Care Policy Reforms are directed at streamlining entry into aged care services, building on the challenges associated with developing integrated assessment processes. Such reform is core to achieving a comprehensive, efficient process.
Here, we report the first stage of a collaborative project with three regional aged care assessment services to explore how services can better work together and improve the assessment process. Specifically, this paper reports the collection of local demographic and assessment data to describe and compare assessment tools and processes across services.
Findings demonstrate the high level of need of those entering the community aged care system; the diversity of tools and processes utilised by the three services; and the high level of duplication and commonality across assessment categories.
Findings suggest the need for improved service integration to clarify the assessment process for older people and conserve regional aged care workforce.
