Residential aged care facilities : places for living and dying

Deborah Parker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In modern Western societies such as Australia there is an emerging pattern of population ageing. In 1901 people sixty‐five years and over comprised four per cent of the total Australian population, by 2002 this had risen to thirteen per cent and by 2051 it is predicted to reach twenty‐four per cent with those over the age of eighty growing the fastest of any age cohort. For approximately seven per cent of those who are aged sixty‐five and over the final months or years are spent in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). In 2007, eighty‐eight per cent of permanent separations from RACFs in Australia were from the death of the resident. Of those residents who die in these settings, seventeen per cent have a length of stay less than three months and nineteen per cent less than twelve months. From these figures it is clear that RACFs are spaces and places where dying and death occur. Despite this, limited attention has been given to how death is experienced in this setting and how the setting itself impacts upon this experience.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)31-51
Number of pages21
JournalCultural Studies Review
Volume17
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2011

Keywords

  • Australia
  • aged care
  • caregivers
  • death
  • nursing homes

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