Leading senior’s advocacy organisation COTA Australia is asking Australians their views about quality of life and quality of services in aged care over the next two months as part of a project to better understand the information consumers want in order to choose their aged care providers.
COTA Australia CEO, Ian Yates said good quality, reliable, easy to understand information was desperately needed to help older Australians compare the quality of services and choose an aged care provider that really suits their needs.
“Choosing an aged care provider is a major, life impacting decision that needs careful consideration, based on good quality comparable information” Mr Yates said.
“COTA Australia has long been an advocate of the need for consumers to have access to information that’s meaningful, answers the questions we need to know and is accessible and simple to navigate.”
The project will canvass the views of all consumers, including older people, their families and friends, as well as aged care service providers via online surveys as well as focus groups across Australia in November and December.
“We particularly want to ask people’s views about their experience of their aged care providers, quality of life measures and indicators of care quality as well as the quality assurance systems and processes that support these measures.
“We also want to hear from Australians what information they need to make choices about the best aged care provider for themselves or their family.”
Mr Yates said access to meaningful information about services provided by aged care providers would become more important as the population continues to age and the shift to customer driven aged care means consumers will be able to change providers if they aren’t happy with their current service.
“By letting consumer choice dictate supply and demand, aged care providers will be forced to deliver the highest quality of care and support to older Australians.
“To make those choices, older Australians need information that’s meaningful and easy to navigate
To participate in the online survey before 31 December 2017:
Older Australians, their families, friends and supporters can fill in their consumer survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Choicesinagedcareconsumers
Aged Care providers and industry representatives can visit here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ChoicesAgedCareServices
Focus groups for providers and consumers will be held in Canberra on Thursday 30 November, in Melbourne on Friday 1 December, in Brisbane on Thursday 7 December, in Sydney on Monday 11 December, in Hobart on Tuesday 12 December and a provider only session in Adelaide on Thursday 14 December.
People wishing to participate in the focus groups for either consumers or providers can find details and RSVP information here: https://www.cota.org.au/australia/requests/measuring-quality-and-consumer-choice-in-aged-care.aspx
Media contact: Ian Yates 0418 835 439, Jenny Stokes 0478 504 280
COTA Australia is the peak policy development, advocacy and representation organisation for older Australians, representing COTAs in every State and Territory and through them over 500,000 older Australians.
