Social engagement pays off
Identifying loneliness and connections vital to aged care assessments
Recognising that the social needs of aged care residents are often overlooked in research, Dr Joyce Siette of the Centre of Health Systems and Safety Research at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, investigated the use of questionnaires to measure social engagement and wellbeing in community care clients.
Dr Siette found that while existing home care assessments focused on physical needs, factors like loneliness and sense of purpose were overlooked and yet could have a significant impact on a person’s happiness.
As a result of this important work, Dr Siette featured in an article in Australian Ageing Agenda magazine published on 15 August titled: Talking about social engagement pays off.
Dr Siette’s research identified a current lack of measurements to capture social needs in the aged care context and made recommendations to incorporate these measures in the future.
To read the full article “Talking about social engagement pays off”
The details of the study have been published in “Health and Social Care in the Community”
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Content owner: Australian Institute of Health Innovation Last updated: 19 Oct 2018 11:01am