What is Person-centred Care?

Person-centred care is an approach to aged care that emphasises the importance of partnership between older people and providers during care planning, delivery and management. A crucial aspect of person-centred care is respecting and responding to older people’s needs, values and preferences (ACQSC 2024a).

Person-centred care comprises:

• Partnering with older people
• Acknowledging each older person’s individuality and respecting their knowledge about their own care
• Allowing older people to use their life experiences and expertise to influence care decisions at individual, service and organisation levels
• Treating older people as individuals rather than just conditions to be managed
• Finding out what is important to older people, their families and carers
• Establishing trust and mutual respect
• Shared decision-making
• Treating older people with dignity, respect and compassion
• Providing care that suits each older person’s needs and helps them achieve their goals
• Supporting older people to understand their own health
• Coordinating care between providers and ensuring continuity of care.

(ACQSC 2024a; ACSQHC 2019; Better Health Channel 2015)

What Does it Mean to Deliver Aged Care in a Person-centred Way?

• The older person is at the centre of the care they are receiving and is supported to make decisions about their life.
• The older person’s life experiences, age, gender, culture, heritage, language, beliefs and identity are all taken into account in the delivery of care.
• The services provided are flexible to meet the older person’s preferences and priorities.
• Care is strengths-based; in other words, there is a greater focus placed on what the older person can do rather than what they require help with, and the person is considered to be the expert of their own life.
• The person’s support networks work with the service provider in a partnership.

(NSW Health 2022)

Overall, the goal of person-centred care is to enable the older person to establish and maintain control over their life (NSW Health 2022).

Person-centred Care Under the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards

Standard 1: The Person under the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards emphasises the importance of person-centred care under Outcome 1.1: Person-centred care, which requires aged care providers to:

• Ensure older people feel safe, welcome, supported and understood
• Establish strategies for:
  • Assessing an older person’s background, culture, diversity, beliefs and life experiences and using these factors to inform their care and services
  • Recognising and understanding older people’s individual communication needs and preferences
  • Recording that an older person identifies as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person
  • Providing care for older people with specific needs and diverse backgrounds, including older people living with dementia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
  • Providing culturally safe, trauma aware and healing informed care
  • Supporting older people to develop and maintain social connections - this includes supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to connect with their community, culture and country
  • Improving inclusion and diversity
• Recognise and respect the rights and autonomy of older people, including their right to express their sexuality and gender and experience intimacy
• Ensure staff maintain a professional and trusting relationship with older people, working together with them to provide care and services.

(ACQSC 2024b)

For more information on these aspects of person-centred care, see the following Ausmed Articles:

• The Importance of Cultural Safety in Aged Care
• Spiritual Considerations in Healthcare
• LGBTIQ+ Awareness in Aged Care
• Intimacy and Sexuality in Aged Care
• Understanding Professional Boundaries

The Benefits of Person-centred Care

Person-centred care has numerous benefits, including:

• Increased care satisfaction
• Decreased risk of depression and anxiety
• Improved functional status
• Increased social engagement
• Increased quality of life
• Improvement in changed behaviours in people with dementia
• Reduced agitation, depression and neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with dementia.

(Respect 2024; ARIIA 2022)

Viewing Older People as Individuals

An important part of delivering person-centred care is gaining an understanding of the person as an individual ‘with a past, present and future’ and acknowledging their strengths and qualities (ARIIA 2022).

It’s important to consider factors such as the person’s culture, language, age, gender, life experiences and preferences (CareSearch 2022).

Practical Ways to Implement Person-centred Care

Examples of person-centred care in everyday practice include:

• Smiling and introducing yourself
• Wearing a name tag
• Explaining your role to the older people in your care
• Asking permission before providing care or assistance
• Respecting older people’s privacy
• Giving older people your full attention when interacting with them
• Speaking to older people at eye level
• Taking the time to ask older people how they are feeling (both physically and mentally)
• Remembering that the older people in your care have individual lives outside of the care environment
• Treating older people as equal participants in their care
• Listening to older people
• Taking into consideration the knowledge older people have about their own health
• Listening to older people’s families and carers
• Keeping in mind that care environments are often unfamiliar and frightening for older people and their loved ones and providing care accordingly
• Understanding that older people may feel lonely or isolated
• Providing older people with all necessary information to make informed decisions about their care
• Taking time to find out older people’s interests and hobbies and supporting them to continue participating in these.

(Health.vic 2015; CareSearch 2022; ARIIA 2022)

Conclusion

Person-centred care is a holistic and genuine approach that supports people in leading the lives they want. The way that you respond to older people’s health issues, vulnerabilities, personalities and situations can have a significant and often long-lasting impact on their health and wellbeing. Furthermore, person-centred care has been demonstrated to positively influence health outcomes and the degree of satisfaction that carers derive from their work.

References