A new campaign from Meaningful Ageing, the peak national body for spiritual care and ageing, highlights how important it is for aged care providers to understand the whole person as much as their clinical needs. When the campaign was released, the CEO for Meaningful Ageing Australia, Ilsa Hampton, endorsed NurseWatch as one of those providers who has a commitment to “whole of person care.”
Ms Hampton added: “We are delighted to be supporting Nurse Watch’s commitment to whole of person care, and applaud the wellbeing approach that the team brings to their work. We are looking forward to hearing the results of Nurse Watch’s new work with our popular screening tool, ConnecTo.”
CEO and founder of NurseWatch, Kate Spurway, said she’s delighted to be working with Meaningful Ageing in this important area: “NurseWatch is a customised premium care service that respects the individual and their right to determine their own continuum of care journey. We strive for our heroes to live life to its full enjoyment and choosing from our complete service of Wellness, Care and Social packages.”
See Me. Know Me. campaign
The new campaign from Meaningful Ageing is called See Me. Know Me. and it’s about empowering people to find aged care providers who are able to see beyond the grey hair and really see the person before them. Ms Hampton said it’s vital for older people and their loved ones to seek out an aged care provider who’ll get to know the person and cater for more than just their physical needs.
“People want providers who seek to know the person – with all their stories, feelings, beliefs and sense of purpose. Not only their past experiences, but their hopes, dreams and loves that connect them to life today,” she added.
”Spirituality, whether personal belief or faith-based, has been identified by the World Health Organisation as intrinsically linked to benefit quality of life. It directly leads to reduced loneliness, better mental health and resilience,” Ms Hampton added. “Spirituality is about meaning, purpose and connectedness in our lives. It may or may not have a faith expression.”
To find the right aged care provider, ask the right questions
The new campaign points out that if people are to find the right provider, they need to ask the right questions when looking for providers.
So what questions should you be asking?
The See Me. Know Me. campaign from Meaningful Ageing features a Top Ten list of questions for older people to ask when they’re looking at a provider. They recommend using these questions to find out whether the aged care provider you’re talking to is taking steps to understand and respond to each person’s needs. They say to look and see how well the provider is answering the questions and how do they react when you start asking the questions?
Here are the Top Ten questions to ask an aged care provider:
1. How will you support me to maintain connections and relationships?
2. What do you do to support a good transition?
3. How is spirituality understood here?
4. How is spirituality integrated in what you offer?
5. What opportunities will I have to reflect on my legacy?
6. How will you find out about my sources of hope?
7. How will my sources of hope be supported?
8. Who is available to be with me if I’m struggling?
9. How many different staff will be working with me?
10. Are you a member of Meaningful Ageing Australia?
Meaningful Ageing Australia has launched the new website seemeknowme.org.au. For more information on the support available for providers, visit: https://meaningfulageing.org.au/other-resources/
About Meaningful Ageing Australia
Meaningful Ageing is the not-for-profit peak body for spiritual care and ageing, supporting organisations and groups to respond to pastoral and spiritual needs of older people, their significant others, and their carers.
Meaningful Ageing works with other organisations around a common goal of full quality of life for the older people they are serving. They create high quality, practical resources and deliver engaging education services enabling best practice pastoral and spiritual care for older people.
Meaningful Ageing advocates with government and key agencies regarding the value of spiritual care for older people in all care settings.
About Spirituality
“Spirituality is the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred.” (Puchalski, Vitillo, Hull, & Reller, 2014)
References
All full references are available at https://meaningfulageing.org.au/other-resources/
• Self-reported spirituality was the strongest predictor of Adjustment to Ageing (AtA) (von Humbolt et al 2014),
• Spiritual support (both religious and nonreligious) is a vital factor in well-being and quality of life at end of life (Nichols 2013),
• Spiritual beliefs can affect the strategies people use to cope with illness (George, Koenig & McCullough, 2000; Williams & Sternthal, 2007)
