Aged care systems need redesigning around better coordination between disciplines, not increased funding, according to health management and leadership researchers publishing in a special issue of Health Care Management Review.
The call comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) forecasts the number of people aged 60 and over “will double to more than 2 billion by 2050”.
In fact, experts say, “by 2050, for the first time in human history, there will be more people aged over 60 than children under 15 — a shift already putting strain on health and social care”.
‘Targeting the wrong thing’
Researchers from Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Finland and Saudi Arabia argue that decades of reform have targeted the wrong problem.
Lead editor Dr Madhan Balasubramanian, Deputy Director of Health Care Management programs at the Flinders Business School, says assessments of current management approaches show change has focused on symptoms rather than causes.
“We have been reforming aged care for decades, but our latest assessment of management approaches shows we’ve been targeting the wrong thing,” says Dr Balasubramanian, who is a member of the Flinders Ageing Alliance.
“Without connecting clinicians, managers and policymakers into shared frameworks, system-level reforms continue to address symptoms rather than causes.
“Aged care systems are being redesigned, but the fundamental problem is how the people running them think.
“What’s missing is the ‘connective tissue’ — the shared language and structures needed to bring disciplines, sectors and institutions together.
“This is exactly the coordinated gap that Australian citizens are telling us about.”
A shared framework
In the issue’s opening article, Dr Balasubramanian and colleagues argue that this transdisciplinary approach requires a change in the overarching “unit of design”.
Rather than assessing workforce, technology or policy reforms in isolation, the authors call for governance that treats these as one interdependent system, which will create the connective tissue that holds ageing-responsive care together.
“Clinicians, managers and policymakers don’t speak the same language. It should all be complementary — a transdisciplinary, interconnected approach,” says Dr Balasubramanian.
