International Perspectives on Residential Aged Care
The need for facilities that provide residential aged care is expected to increase significantly in the near future as the global population ages at an unprecedented rate. Many older adults will need to be placed in a residential care setting, such as an assisted living facility (ALF) or nursing home, when their caregivers can no longer effectively manage serious medical or psychiatric conditions at home. Although the types of residential care settings worldwide vary considerably, long-term care residents (LTC) and staff benefit from environmental and cultural changes in LTC settings. Unlike traditional medical models of LTC, culture change advocates for a shift toward holistic, person-centered care that takes place in homelike environments and accounts for the psychosocial needs of residents. Carving out a role for family members and training professional caregivers to address behavioral problems and quality-of-life issues remain a challenge. In LTC settings, preliminary research indicates that implementing person-centered changes addressing resident and caregiver needs may lead to better health outcomes, as well as increased satisfaction among patients, families, and staff. With the burgeoning world population of older adults, it is incumbent that they be provided with optimal humane culturally sensitive care.