Overview

The Final Report of the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, tabled in 2021, recommended priority be given to research and innovation in the aged care sector that involves co-design with older people, their families and the aged care workforce. Advocacy organisation National Seniors Australia responded to this recommendation by inviting thousands of older Australians to describe what 'co-design' means to them in this context. This report details the results of that survey, in which 4562 older Australians shared their views on co-designing improvements to the aged care system. The survey revealed that Australian seniors overwhelmingly support this prospect of older people co-designing improvements to aged care. In particular, they are committed to the principle that the system's users should play a significant role in its ongoing design. They feel that current opportunities for older people to co-design or manage aged care are minimal, despite many older people having relevant experience and expertise they would like to put to use. They feel that the current Australian aged care system does not adequately meet existing needs, that services and facilities should be tailored to suit diverse needs and preferences, and in particular, developing diverse accommodation options is a high priority area. Seniors are wary of tokenistic gestures of involvement such as consultation processes that do not act on recommendations. Many seniors are also unsure what the term 'co-design' means, so communication about co-design should take this into account. A first step in combatting ageism is to grant older people self-determination, and this report shows how important that is to senior Australians.