My Care Matters - Aged Care Matters - ELDAC
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My Care Matters

The care that aged care workers and services provide matters to the older people, their families, and our community.

The My Care Matters (MCM) national campaign was launched in 2022. The campaign engaged with the aged care sector and the workforce using a gentle approach which encouraged the workforce to reflect on their views around death, dying and providing end of life (EOL) caregiving.

Running over a 15-month period, the campaign used a structured approach to prompt reflection on five relevant aspects of EOL caring, namely: normalising death, acknowledging palliative care as part of aged care, continuous learning, embracing diversity, and self-care for the workforce.

MCM campaign and sub-campaign overview. 1. Part of life - End of life is a normal part of life. 2. Part of Care - Palliative care is a part of aged care. 3. Learning for Care - Learning is an important part of care. 4. Inclusive Care - Inclusiveness in palliative/EOL care. 5. Self-care - Self-care in palliative/EOL care. 6. Study conceptualised. 7. Ethics approval obtained. 8. Ethics approval obtained. 9. Project running - Attitudinal survey and recruiting champions.

Figure: MCM campaign and sub-campaign overview

The MCM campaign, which was one of the key deliverables of the ELDAC 2022-2023 for the Flinders University, has been successfully delivered. The MCM campaign as a program has added value to the sector in the following ways:

Empowering the sector to bring in culture change

“Having the information coming not just from me as a clinician or manager but from a source that is made up of a group of specialists, I think it then gives credibility. It takes the hard work out for me as an individual.”

Soft approaches to normalise death and dying

“It gave me that ability to have something that I could provide not just my words. So, you have an opportunity to not just advocate for normalising end of life care, but to access resources that you can tangibly provide to people, so that you can be an avenue of support or an avenue of information."

Bringing staff wellbeing to the forefront

“It's one thing to talk to people and offer them support. But to have a program that supports and normalizes that for people and helps them also to be able to discuss death in a way that is helpful both to themselves and to consumers and their families, and to other workers, I thought was such a wonderful opportunity.”

 

The My Care Matters Campaign and resources continue to provide meaningful support the aged care sector by providing aged care staff the opportunity and tangible tools to normalise death and dying as well as help strengthen service level processes geared towards person-centred end of life and palliative care provision. Acknowledging the important role of the aged care sector when it comes to end of life caregiving, this campaign demonstrated that a gentle approach to raising death literacy, and normalisation of EOL caregiving in aged care sector can lead to small but meaningful changes.

My Care Matters. ELDAC is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health

Page updated 10 July 2024