Aged care residents speak up
It’s the second time residents have been asked what they like and don’t like about their aged care home. Have things improved?
Safety, respect, independence, and kindness are the top qualities that make older Australians in residential aged care happy, according to a survey.
The newly released 2023 Residents’ Experience Survey (RES) is the second annual survey for older people living in Australian Government-funded aged care homes.
It showed that 85% of the surveyed residents were likely to recommend their aged care home to someone, which is similar to the result in the 2022 survey.
In fact, the survey showed that overall, residents responded the same or more positively to all questions in 2023 compared to 2022, which the government says shows “a high level of satisfaction among aged care residents”.
Food: Residents continue to be dissatisfied with the food they are given in aged care homes. While 70% of residents were satisfied with the food, this was the lowest ranked question for 2022 and 2023. Residents asked for improvements to food quality and variety.
Residents in larger homes and residents with higher nursing requirements were much less satisfied with food. Residents with significant cognitive impairment were more satisfied with the food.
Communications: Staff communication (explaining things) and following up were the next lowest ranked questions.
Staff: More staff was the most common request.
Care needs: Those with high care needs were less satisfied. For residents with high care needs due to limited mobility or behavioural challenges, all questions were scored lower. Those with high nursing support needs expressed lower satisfaction with the organisational aspects of care.
CALD: Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) residents, including First Nations Australians, were less satisfied than non-CALD residents.
Size of facility: Residents in larger aged care homes responded less positively to all questions in the survey compared to those in smaller aged care homes.
Responses around autonomy, or the extent to which residents live independently, showed the most improvement over the last survey:
87% of residents felt that they had a say in their daily activities, up 7% on 2022.
85% of residents felt they were encouraged to do as much as possible for themselves, up 4% on 2022.
Residents requiring high levels of behavioural support or daily living support were much less satisfied with autonomy.
Proxies (representatives nominated to answer the survey on behalf of residents) were the least satisfied with autonomy.
The RES captures the experiences of older people living in residential aged care throughout Australia and provides insights into the quality of the services they receive.
The survey, a Department of Health and Aged Care initiative, is delivered by an independent third party with a qualified survey team and aims to survey around 20% of residents each year, with a minimum of 10% surveyed at each home.
The first RES was in 2022. It responds to a key finding of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety to adopt a comprehensive approach to quality of care and reporting.
Survey data is shared in Residents’ Experience Reports which provide participating residential aged care homes with information on what is working well and what can be improved at their service.
The RES is used in the calculation of each home’s Star Rating, and contributes a third towards the overall rating.
Related reading: Fact sheet
