This presentation outlines some basic principles on developing care plans for the elderly.

1. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
Assessing & Attending
to an Older Person’s
Needs

2. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
Care plans must be
developed with the older
person or their advocate.
Care plans help older people
control their own service
needs and ensure workers
understand these needs. By
developing a care plan, a
service is agreeing to meet
the older person’s needs.

3. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
Care plans:
• Are used in both residential care and community
programs
• Explain:
 an older person needs, goals for the support
being given or what the older person wants to
achieve.
 How, when and where the support will be
given.
 The older person's preferences.

4. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
Your job may involve assessing an older
person's needs. Assessing the needs of
older people means:
1. Identifying their needs.
2. Knowing what the older person can and
cannot do.
3. Understanding the older person’s
expectations of a service.

5. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
• Aged care services must
identify if they can't meet
an older person's needs.
• They should then refer
the older person to
another service and help
them make contact.

6. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
You might already know
of other services that
can help or you may
need to ask your
supervisor.

7. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
• Ensure information and referrals are
understood by older people & advocates by:
 Providing brochures in other languages
 Printing material in larger print
 Recording material in audio format
 Using an interpreter
 Explaining the information in person
 Rewriting the information to make it easier to read
or understand

8. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
• Aged care services must make sure the older person &
advocate understand all the choices available to them.
• Choices include:
 Services at home such as getting help with cooking
and cleaning
 Where to live
 Getting respite care
 Cost, the services provided and
their responsibilities

9. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
• There should be no pressure from the service to take
particular types of support.
• Older people & advocates should have the time they
need to make choices.
• The older person & davocate advocate must be able to
ask questions. They must understand what their choices
mean.

10. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
• The care you give must always be of the
same standard. It should not be better or
worse for one person than another.
• The support you give must change for
different needs but this does not mean
giving a different standard of care.

11. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
• Sometimes older people may not be
happy with the services they get. They
may want to make a complaint. You need
to know how complaints can be made and
what happens after a complaint is made.

12. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
As a carer you must:
• Provide the same quality of service to
everyone.
• Respect their living situations and choices.
• Provide support that meets their needs.

13. Assessing & Attending to
an Older Person’s Needs
• The National Aged Care Advocacy
Program (NACAP) is a national
program funded by the Australian
Government under the Aged Care Act
1997.
• The NACAP aims to promote the
rights of people receiving Australian
Government funded aged care
services.

14. IHNA offers qualifications in
aged care, disability and
nursing. Go to
http://www.ihna.edu.au to kick
start your health career.
Thank you for
viewing this
presentation!