Improving Quality of Life for Older People in Long-Stay Care ...

Age Awareness TrainingMany stereotypical assumptions about old age as being a time of disease, declineand passivity are fuelled by an absence of information about our older population.Through its programme of research, over a number of years, the Council has drawntogether a large volume of information about older people in Ireland. This informationhighlights the heterogeneity of the older population, in addition to dispelling someof the myths of ageing. The Council recommends that its research findings, andin particular, the findings detailed in this report be incorporated into any ageawareness training programme that is developed for long-stay care staff.Quality Assurance Training22Quality assurance is a process through which service providers and recipients canassess services to ascertain whether acceptable practices are being adopted, anddevise adjustments and improvements where deficiencies are identified. As such,quality assurance mechanisms are viewed as a way of continuous improvement. Inthis regard, the Council notes the Code of Practice for Nursing Homes (Departmentof Health, 1995), which was developed as a quality assurance guidance documentto encourage long-stay care service providers to promote quality of life for residents.Another form of quality assurance is accreditation. In this regard, the Council notesthe recent development of draft Residential Care Accreditation Standards (RCAS)by the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board (IHSAB). The Council reiteratesits recommendation for the development of quality assurance mechanisms forthe long-stay care sector. Specifically, it reiterates its recommendation that alllong-stay facilities be required to produce a quality assurance policy statementand a quality assurance service plan (NCAOP, 2000). In order to foster andenhance quality of life in particular, the Council advises that all qualityassurance mechanisms should take account of the findings of this research.An example of good practice with regard to quality assurance is the Healthy AgeingInitiative for Residential Care (HAIRC), which has been developed jointly by theNCAOP and the Irish National Health Promoting Hospitals Network (INHPHN). Theinitiative proposes ten steps to promote person-centred care and quality of life, thecreation of a positive working environment for those involved in care provision, andthe development of family friendly environments. Launched in 2005, the initiative isbeing evaluated with a view to its further development as a tool to promote qualityof life in the facilities that opt to implement the programme. It is critical to note thatexperience from the facilities to date highlights the need for support and training inImproving Quality of Life for Older People in Long-Stay Care Settings in Ireland