Partner with older people in the governance*, design, evaluation and improvement of quality care* and services.

Partner with a diverse range of older people to understand their needs and preferences. This includes older people who:

• use, or can use, the service
• are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander persons, including those from stolen generations
• are veterans or war widows
• are from culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds
• are financially or socially disadvantaged
• are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless
• are parents and children who are separated by forced adoption or removal
• are adult survivors of institutional child sexual abuse
• are care-leavers, including Forgotten Australians and former child migrants placed in out-of-home care
• are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, transgender, intersex or other sexual orientations or are gender diverse or bodily diverse
• are living with disability or mental illness
• are neurodivergent
• are deaf, deafblind, vision impaired or hard of hearing
• live in regional, remote or very remote areas
• are living with cognitive impairment* including dementia*
• are represented by the Consumers and Families Panel (Outcome 1.1).

You can do this by:

• talking with older people, their supporters and others they want to involve about their needs, goals and preferences*
• providing opportunities for older people to take part in your Consumer Advisory Body or other similar committees
• holding forums or feedback* sessions
• using surveys
• promoting the use of your complaints* and feedback* system*.

Use the feedback from older people to:

• tailor information to older people’s needs and preferences (Outcome 3.3). Consider the language and communication needs and preferences of older people (Outcome 1.1).
• design and improve the quality, safety and inclusion culture and quality system* (Outcomes 2.2 and 2.3)
• design care and services to make sure they:
  • centre around the needs and preferences of older people (Outcomes 1.1 and 3.1)
  • are accessible, appropriate and culturally safe for people from diverse backgrounds, including Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples
  • meet all relevant cultural needs (Outcome 1.1)
  • meet the needs of older people living with dementia*, disability, mental illness* or cognitive impairment*.

You can also talk with relevant community organisations, advocacy services and spiritual and community leaders to support older people with diverse needs. For example, you can connect older people with local services and community groups that are relevant to them.
 

Support older people to take part in partnerships*.

Put in place strategies to support workers* to partner with older people. For example, strategies or supports that educate and guide your workers* to:

• inform older people about how they can take part in partnerships*
• encourage older people to contribute their ideas. For example, if they:
  • are less inclined to speak up
  • live with dementia*, mental illness* or disability
  • are affected by trauma.
• help older people contribute their ideas in a way they feel comfortable with. These can be:
• one-to-one chats
• anonymous feedback* boxes
• other ways that suit them.

Monitor processes* for partnering with older people and how well they are working.

To check if you’re partnering with older people well, you can review:

• older people’s care and service documents (Outcome 3.1). For example, care and services plans* and progress notes. Make sure you include feedback* from the older person when you develop their care and services plan*.
• participation and feedback* of older people involved in committees such as your Consumer Advisory Body
• the number and type of actions and improvements that you’ve made as a result of partnering with older people
• complaints* and feedback* from older people (Outcome 2.6) about:
  • whether the partnering process* works for them
  • whether the partnering process* is improving quality care* and services
• incident* information (Outcome 2.5).

Also, talk with older people, their families and carers* about the care and services they receive. For example, ask them:

• if they feel included in the governance*, design, evaluation and improvement of care and services
• if they feel that you and others listen to their feedback*
• if they have any suggestions to improve these processes*.

These conversations can help you with continuous improvement* actions and planning (Outcome 2.1).
 
Assess if workers* are following your quality system* (Outcome 2.9). You can do this through system* reviews and quality assurance.

If you find any issues or ways you can improve through your reviews and quality assurance, you need to address them. If things go wrong, you need to:

• practise open disclosure* (Outcome 2.3). This means being open about what has gone wrong. Share what went wrong with older people, their supporters and others they may want to involve, such as family and carers*.
• put in place strategies to mitigate the risk of things going wrong again.

You will know things are going well if older people say that they are confident that they feel:

• safe to speak up
• feel heard.

The guidance for Outcome 2.3 has more information on monitoring the quality system*.