Healthy Ageing and Aged Care, 2nd edition

A comprehensive and accessible introduction to the diverse aspects of ageing and aged care.

Healthy Ageing and Aged Care takes a person-centred approach to supporting older people within the community and in care. With relevance to a wide range of health practitioners, it brings to life healthy ageing, with a focus on wellness in primary and community care settings, as well as institutional care locations. Addressing attitudes, confronting stereotypes and challenging perceptions of aged care, it offers a new way of thinking about ageing based on stories and experiences of older people.

This second edition introduces students to recent changes in aged care, including the outcomes of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety 2021 report, the impact of COVID on the older person and data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics into ageing, population growth and demographics.

As future health professionals, students will be engaged in learning through stories of older people, some of which are captured on video, the podcasts with authors and the written text. These are designed to challenge attitudes towards older people, opening the student to transformative learning. New knowledge can then be applied to clinical practice through the case studies in each chapter, encouraging the student to work with the older person so that appropriate support can be suggested to enhance quality of life.

New to this Edition

New chapter on oral health equips students with clear pictorial guides to oral hygiene, enhancing their knowledge and practice in this often-neglected aspect of assessing older people.
Updated chapter on First Nations Australians, written by a First Nations author.
Two new Video Case Studies along with eight from the previous edition, enable students to hear directly from people affected by aged care and bring to life core issues covered in the book.
Updated Getting to Know the Person Case Studies introduce students to older individuals, their families and the health professionals involved in their care.
Revised Focus Questions promote reflection and encourage independent thinking and reasoning.
Updated Implications for Practice boxes show how the content impacts on current nursing and health-care practices.
Additional Example Dialogue in chapters 12 (Maintaining Mental health through the Ageing Experience) and 19 (End-of-life Care) contain constructive conversations and communication points for students to use in practice.