The Department of Health and Aged Care has released the final report on the development of the draft National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines.
There are four Principles, each with a set of Guidelines that focus on a particular design challenge, providing an overview of key concerns and potential solutions. The four Principles are:
- Enable the Person: To support people living in a place that maintains their health, wellbeing and sense of identity.
- Cultivate a Home: To create a familiar environment in which people have privacy, control and feel they belong.
- Access the Outdoors: To support people seeing, accessing and spending time outdoors in contact with nature.
- Connect with Community: To encourage people to connect with family, friends and community, continuing to participate in meaningful activities.
Principle 2, Cultivate a Home, wants small household models, following international consensus that the best health and wellbeing outcomes are achieved in living arrangements that bring together 15 or fewer people and promote familiar, domestic activities.
“Older people and their families have been calling for the deinstitutionalisation of aged care for some time,” OPAN CEO Craig Gear OAM said.
“The traditional model of large, multi-bed institutions is socially isolating, and it deprives older people of their autonomy.”
The final report includes practical examples of providers who have been able to achieve what the Design Principles and Guidelines seek.
Those providers are:
- HammondCare Darlinghurst,
- Australian Unity Campbell Place Aged Care,
- Goodwin George Sautelle House,
- Anglicare Goodwin Gardens,
- Australian Unity Racecourse Grange,
- HammondCare Sinclair Cottage,
- Opal Glenmore Park,
- Harbison Burradoo,
- Benetas The Views at Heidelberg,
- Anglicare Oran Park,
- VMCH St Bernadette's Lady Lourdes House,
- HammondCare Wahroonga,
- Opal Bathurst Riverview,
- Opal Narrabeen Glades,
- New Directions Care Bellmere Gardens,
- Uniting Aldersgate Lilyfield,
- HammondCare The Pines,
- Peninsula Villages Umina Beach,
- Scalabrini The Village, and
- St Basil's Randwick.
The National Aged Care Accommodation Design Principles and Guidelines are the centrepiece of the Australian Government’s new Residential Aged Care Accommodation Framework, which is due to commence on 1 July 2024.
The Department of Health and Aged Care is currently seeking feedback on the draft Design Principles and Guidelines and factors likely to impact their take up. You can provide feedback HERE.
The Department is also conducting a Stocktake on the Design of Residential Aged Care Accommodation to understand what residential aged care accommodation looks like from a design perspective. You can contribute to the stocktake HERE.
To access the report, click HERE.
The SOURCE: It’s great to see so many providers are doing the right thing for residents