About the Monthly Care Statements
Monthly Care Statements will improve the quality of information shared between a residential aged care home and its residents. Every month, providers must prepare the statement for each of their residents. It will include a summary of:
- the care the resident receives
- any significant changes or events that occurred in the previous month.
By detailing these activities in the Monthly Care Statement, we aim to make it:
- easier for residents to keep a record of their care
- a prompt for regular conversations with their provider.
We are developing the statements in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which highlighted:
- a lack of information flow from aged care providers to older people and their representatives
- the need for an aged care system that puts the needs of older people at the centre of care.
The benefit of Monthly Care Statements
Monthly Care Statements will give residents:
- important information about their care, in one easy to read statement, so they can monitor and adjust their care to meet their needs
- a prompt for further conversations with their provider about their care
- increased visibility of the results of their care assessments and planning undertaken by their provider (residential aged care homes must already communicate, document and make this available to residents, under the Aged Care Quality Standards 2(3)(d))
- confidence that their provider has listened and acted on their requests and feedback.
Monthly Care Statements pilot
We’re working with stakeholders to make sure the Monthly Care Statements are useful and meet the information needs of residents. We’re doing this through a staged approach starting with a pilot.
The pilot has 3 stages.
Stage 1: Design and recruit (October – December 2022)
We worked with older people, their representatives and providers to decide what we should include in the statements.
Together we designed 5 prototype statements to trial and test.
We also sought expressions of interest from providers to volunteer to trial the prototypes with some of their residents.
Stage 2: Implement and support (December 2022 to June 2023)
More than 35 individual providers have volunteered at least one of their aged care homes, including homes that are large and small, rural and remote, profit and not-for profit, First Nations and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse.
We are aiming to include 15 volunteer residents or their representatives to participate at each pilot site.
The volunteer residents or representatives will receive three Monthly Care Statements to trial as part of the pilot. The provider will then generate the:
- first statement for the month of March and provide it in April 2023
- second statement in April and issue it in May 2023
- third statement in May and issue it in June 2023.
Stage 3: Review and evaluate (June to August 2023)
After trialling the prototype statements, we will seek participant feedback on what worked and what needs to improve.
We will seek feedback through surveys and interviews.
In evaluating the pilot we’ll be looking to check:
- that residents have played a central role in the design and content of the statements
- the statements are valuable to residents while minimising the impact on frontline staff
- the statements improve the delivery of care and the relationship between providers and their residents
- how aged care homes can use the information they already collect (care plan reviews, resident-of-the-day initiatives) to develop the statements
- the solutions that work best with existing processes and systems to minimise the resource impact on care delivery to residents.
Feedback from participants will inform an evaluation report for consideration ahead of the next stage of developing the statements.
The results of the pilot will be used to develop legislation and the broader Monthly Care Statements.
What’s included in the Monthly Care Statements
While we are still refining the type of information included in the statements through the pilot, they will generally include:
- changes to care plans or care needs
- incidents, injuries, falls, hospital or GP visits
- medications given and any changes
- appointments
- social activities
- feedback.
All residential aged care homes will need to offer Monthly Care Statements to their residents or their representatives.
The pilot program is helping us to decide the most useful information to include.
Who we work with
We engaged Nous Group to help us design, implement, review and evaluate the Monthly Care Statements pilot.
Nous has established a partnership with the Aged and Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA), who will also support the pilot design and recruitment of participants.
Neither the Nous Group nor the department will collect information through the statements or surveys which can identify the volunteer residents.
We’ve also been working closely with older people, their representatives, and providers.
Older people are helping to design and implement Monthly Care Statements. This includes considering which information we should include. Playing an active role allows residents and their representatives to be better informed in directing care homes to meet their goals, needs and preferences.
Approved providers participating in the pilot are also helping to shape aged care policy. They are leading the change to a consumer-centred aged care system by:
- trialling the statements with external support to ensure they work with existing processes and systems
- providing us with valued feedback to inform the Monthly Care Statements policy
- preparing early for these changes.
Contact us
For more information about the Monthly Care Statements email monthlycarestatements@health.gov.au.