Provision of Aged Care Services in Australia
1. This research paper points out current issues relevant to community services.
2. The paper consists of three peer-reviewed articles that research significant issues relevant to Australian Community Services.
3. The methodologies utilised.
4. The results obtained.
5. The significance of the results in relation to the Australian population.
This paper examines the opinions of aged care service providers on the difficulties they face in their line of work in Australia. The aged care segment is undergoing a workforce crisis as recruiting skilled workers is becoming increasingly difficult.
Besides the sector is proving to be very complicated and diverse due to reforms on the modern elderly care service in addition to the current difficulties in availing services to the rising numbers of the elderly in Australia’s population.
Notwithstanding the hurdles, there exists a research gap that examines how elderly care services handle their day-to-day demands for skilled employees across multiple service segment.
Methods: The sampled services managers were 11 women as part of a wider project that analyzed the expertise and training requirements of elderly care workers in the Riverina region of New South Wales.
Collection of primary data mainly involved in-person interviews of the participants. This data was analyzed thematically to reveal the managers’ needs for employees and skills in regards to location, service framework, and accessibility of other health and community services.
Results: Thematic survey of the obtained data revealed three themes: older worker and gendered roles; service, expertise and role deployment; and barriers to the recruitments as the major challenges the managers saw hindered the elderly care service segment.
Conclusions: The findings showcased the service segment is plagued by challenges that are deep-rooted. Exploitative stature of the work, gendered and preferences to the moral dimensions instead of the technical expertise required for the job
Keywords: aged care, Australia, workforce, Riverina, elderly care, New South Wales, service managers
