- Title
- Exploring community-based aged care with Aboriginal elders in three regional and remote Australian communities : a qualitative study
- Creator
- Ottmann, Goetz
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/182145
- Identifier
- vital:16078
- Identifier
- ISBN:2209-0878
- Abstract
- While a small body of literature focuses on various facets of aged care services delivered to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, very little is known about the support needs and preferences of Indigenous Elders who ‘return to country’. This article addresses this gap. It explores the support needs of Indigenous Elders who return to their communities after having lived elsewhere for prolonged periods of time. It provides an overview of the key themes emerging from group sessions and semi-structured interviews with 11 Aboriginal Elders and 12 representatives of regional health and social care organisations conducted between 2012 and 2013. The article argues that the quest of Elders to strengthen kinship systems should not be seen as a barrier but as an opportunity to develop aged care services that resonate with the needs of Indigenous Elders and with their kinship network. The findings presented in the article are structured around the themes of empowerment and choice; community-based kinship care; and enhancing program flexibility. The article argues that it is crucial for Aboriginal community care services to be grounded in Indigenous culture. To address the wider socio-cultural project of Aboriginal Elders (i.e. to re-connect with their families, strengthen the kinship system and, re-create their cultural roles) when designing aged care services not only ensures that services are relevant to Indigenous Elders, it also ensures that services are culturally safe and address the psychosocial needs of Elders returning to country as well as their families. The article lends further weight to research that reports that a mainstream approach to the aged care of Indigenous Elder is likely to produce poor care outcomes.
- Relation
- Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory Vol. 1, no. 001 (2018), p.
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Rights
- Copyright @ University of Sydney
- Rights
- Open Access
- Rights
- Culturally sensitive
- Subject
- 4409 Social Work; Aboriginal Elders; Community aged care; Co-design; Stolen generation; Socio-emotional wellbeing; Cultural safety
- Full Text
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