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Objective: Given the diverse ethnic backgrounds of aged care clients, there is a critical requirement to translate psychosocial assessment tools into various languages to effectively evaluate social engagement and quality of life in older adults receiving aged care services. This study aimed to translate psychosocial tools into Turkish, Korean and Mandarin, the primary languages spoken by clients of an Australian community aged care provider., Methods: A co-development approach encompassing forward and backward translations of the Australian Community Participation Questionnaire and ICEpop CAPability measure for Older people tools, along with focus group discussions involving bilingual staff (n = 7) and clients (n = 16), was employed to ensure precision and cultural relevance. Multiple iterations were undertaken until linguistic, conceptual and scaling equivalence was achieved, with recorded sessions transcribed and analysed thematically., Results: Cultural appropriateness significantly impacted the delivery of questions within the tools, emphasising translation challenges tied to specific queries. These difficulties included the lack of terms for unique places of worship, the use of outdated language (e.g., references to reading newspapers), and varying priorities in social and well-being matters between Western and Eastern/Asian cultures. Staff feedback identified that formal translated tool versions eased administration for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) clients, enabling them to independently interpret questions, resulting in improved questionnaire completion rates., Conclusions: Insights indicate the need for continued efforts in tailoring assessment tools to diverse cultural contexts to ensure accurate and meaningful data collection., (© 2024 The Authors. Australasian Journal on Ageing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AJA Inc’.)

In the residential aged care sector medication management has been identified as a major area of concern contributing to poor outcomes and quality of life for residents. Monitoring medication management in residential aged care in Australia has been highly reliant on small, internal audits. The introduction of electronic medication administration systems provides new opportunities to establish improved methods for ongoing, timely and efficient monitoring of a range of medication indicators, made more meaningful by linking medication data with resident characteristics and outcomes. Benchmarking contemporary medication indicators provides a further opportunity for improvement and is most effective when indicator data are adjusted to take account of confounding factors, such as residents' characteristics and health conditions. Roundtables provide a structure for sharing and discussing indicator data in a trusted and supportive environment and encourage the identification of strategies which may be effective in improving medication management. This paper describes a new project to establish, implement and evaluate a National Aged Care Medication Roundtable.

Social participation is critical to the health and well-being of older adults, however, participation often declines with age. Research has identified that personal and environmental factors such as high socioeconomic status and accessible transportation are associated with higher levels of social participation. However, the barriers and facilitators to social participation experienced by older adults receiving community aged care services remains largely unexplored. This qualitative study aimed to generate context-rich data and identify the barriers and facilitators to effective community care services that can support older adults' participation in the community and contribute to individual well-being. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 40 community aged care clients and 21 staff members between January to July 2018 and thematic analysis was undertaken. Environmental factors, such as availability and accessibility of transportation services emerged as the most important factors influencing participation. Older age, self-attitude towards one's own functional ability and limited social networks were important personal factors affecting participation. Proactive aged care services (e.g., engaged staff, tailored activities) were reported to assist with continual engagement in aged care services. In contrast, the type, location and accessibility of the activity, associated costs and limited options for accessible transportation were key barriers to older adults' social participation. Pathways contributing to positive engagement were complex and variable, but personal well-being and local community resources emerged as important factors encouraging higher social participation. These findings are discussed in the context of the ongoing pandemic and implications for future aged care services are provided., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: There is a clear need for improved care quality and quality monitoring in aged care. Aged care providers collect an abundance of data, yet rarely are these data integrated and transformed in real-time into actionable information to support evidence-based care, nor are they shared with older people and informal caregivers. This protocol describes the co-design and testing of a dashboard in residential aged care facilities (nursing or care homes) and community-based aged care settings (formal care provided at home or in the community). The dashboard will comprise integrated data to provide an 'at-a-glance' overview of aged care clients, indicators to identify clients at risk of fall-related hospitalisations and poor quality of life, and evidence-based decision support to minimise these risks. Longer term plans for dashboard implementation and evaluation are also outlined., Methods: This mixed-method study will involve (1) co-designing dashboard features with aged care staff, clients, informal caregivers and general practitioners (GPs), (2) integrating aged care data silos and developing risk models, and (3) testing dashboard prototypes with users. The dashboard features will be informed by direct observations of routine work, interviews, focus groups and co-design groups with users, and a community forum. Multivariable discrete time survival models will be used to develop risk indicators, using predictors from linked historical aged care and hospital data. Dashboard prototype testing will comprise interviews, focus groups and walk-through scenarios using a think-aloud approach with staff members, clients and informal caregivers, and a GP workshop., Ethics and Dissemination: This study has received ethical approval from the New South Wales (NSW) Population & Health Services Research Ethics Committee and Macquarie University's Human Research Ethics Committee. The research findings will be presented to the aged care provider who will share results with staff members, clients, residents and informal caregivers. Findings will be disseminated as peer-reviewed journal articles, policy briefs and conference presentations., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Social isolation is an increasing concern for older adults who live in the community. Despite some availability of social support programs to address social isolation, their effectiveness is not routinely measured. This study aimed to evaluate an innovative excursion-based program offering unique social experiences to older adults receiving aged care services., Methods: This six-month before and after mixed-methods study evaluated the outcomes of an Australian excursion-based program which offered social and physical outings to bring older adults receiving aged care services into the wider community. The study combined two parts: Part 1 was a pre-post survey assessing the quality of life of older adults who received the excursion-based program for 6 months (n = 56; two time-points, analysed using signed rank test) and Part 2 involved qualitative in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 24 aged care staff, older adults and carers; analysed using thematic analysis)., Results: Older adults experienced a significant increase in quality of life scores (p < 0.001) between baseline and 6 months. Interviews confirmed these observations and suggested that benefits of participation included increased opportunities for social participation, psychological wellbeing, physical function, and carer respite. Interviews also revealed being in a group setting, having tailored, convenient and accessible activities, alongside supportive staff were key drivers in improving the wellbeing of participants., Conclusions: Participating in an excursion-based community program may improve wellbeing in older adults. Aging policy should focus on prioritizing initiatives that promote social connectivity with the wider community and assist in improving outcomes for older adults.

Objective: To measure the direct and indirect out-of-pocket (OOP) costs borne by Australians with gout., Methods: A cross-sectional, Australia-wide, web-based survey was conducted over 12 months between May 2017 and April 2018. Participants were recruited via advertisements in doctors' clinics and healthcare organizations' websites, and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Survey questions collected information about participants' OOP spending on direct medical and non-medical gout-related healthcare costs. Participant demographics, gout status, healthcare sought, workdays lost to due gout and health-related quality of life were also collected., Results: Seventy-nine patients with gout completed the survey; 70 (89%) were male, and on average were 56 (SD 16) years of age and had gout for 14 (SD 12) years. For this cohort, the median total OOP direct medical cost was AU$200 per year (interquartile range [IQR]: AU$60-AU$570). Sixty (76%) people with gout reported being affected by gout during work; however, only 0.25 (IQR: 0-3) days of work (approximately $60) were lost due to gout in a year. Nine percent (n = 7) of participants experienced cost-related treatment attrition and 33% reported economic hardship (n = 26). Participants who experienced economic hardship or cost-related treatment attrition had higher median total gout-related direct costs than those who did not., Conclusion: In Australia, gout has an OOP financial cost and reduces work productivity. The presence of cost-related treatment attrition among people with gout indicates that financial costs may be a significant barrier to seeking treatment for a subset of patients with gout., (© 2020 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Objective: To explore the perceptions of patients toward the impacts of gout, in an Australian context., Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Australian patients with gout (n = 17). Interviews focused on the impacts of gout on patients' day-to-day lives. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically by 2 independent reviewers., Results: Patients with gout reported variable but significant impacts of gout on their daily lives. Patients were primarily concerned with the pain and poor mobility associated with gout flares. Participants also reported significant social impacts related to their inability to attend events and the need for family and friends to look after them. Productivity was also negatively affected due to pain and poor mobility, and emotional wellbeing was reduced both by the symptoms of gout flares and anxiety between flares. Diet, daily planning, hobbies, exercise, sleep and selection of attire were also reported as being impacted by their gout., Conclusions: In Australia, gout has significant and preventable impacts beyond the physical symptoms of gout flares, across a variety of domains. By identifying patients' key concerns, this can potentially aid clinicians to tailor gout education and encourage medication adherence, in order to improve gout management., (© 2020 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Objectives: (1) To describe the processes used to plan and conduct a stakeholder forum in aged care as a means of informing future uptake of consumer participatory research. (2) To discuss how capturing and drawing on stakeholders' experiences of aged care can generate new research ideas and inform the delivery of more person-centred aged care services., Key Principles of Consumer Engagement: A stakeholder forum was conducted as part of Ageing Well, a 2-year project evaluating the value and impact of social participation and quality of life tools as part of routine community aged care assessments at a large Australian provider. The forum was codesigned with community aged care clients and care coordinators and aimed to coproduce implementation strategies with a targeted representation of stakeholders. The stakeholder forum was developed using five key principles of consumer engagement activities: purposeful, inclusive, timely, transparent and respectful. The forum fostered an environment of mutual respect and collective inquiry to encourage contributions from all participants. This article outlines practical guidance on using a consumer engagement framework and the lessons learnt., Discussion: The stakeholder forum facilitated an understanding of consumers' needs and existing gaps in aged care services and the circumstances that can enable or hinder the delivery and implementation of these services. This collective information can guide future research and policy at institutional, regional and national committees that relate to aged care., Trial Registration Number: ACTRN12617001212347., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objective: To determine what information from community aged care social participation and quality of life assessments needs to be captured, and meaningfully utilised as part of an integrated information and communication technology system. Methods: Two think tank sessions comprised of community aged care staff and researchers (n = 9) were conducted over 5 weeks. The sessions were guided by the Continuous Quality Improvement framework. Thematic analysis was used to categorise the think tank data. Results: To monitor progress over time, participants needed more contextual information captured in the assessment forms, such as client goals and outcomes of assessments. The aged care provider agreed to embed outcome measure score and action following assessment into its information and communication technology system. Conclusion: Collaboration between aged care staff and researchers resulted in adjustments to the aged care provider's information and communication technology system to better target the monitoring and planning of its clients' psychosocial needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]