THEL614 - Ageing and the Ethics of Elder Care

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Teaching organisation

This fully online unit involves 150 hours of focused learning. This total includes formally structured learning activities within online modules, and participation in online forums. The remaining hours typically involve reading, research, and the preparation of tasks for assessment. 

Unit rationale, description and aim

Those involved in the management of Aged Care services need to understand the social, emotional, institutional and spiritual needs of older people. As they design and deliver therapeutic supports and care offerings to individuals at varying levels of cognitive and physical health and ability, managers of Aged Care services must be capable of critically analyzing the forces of “ageism” in institutions and of applying the ethical and theological perspectives necessary for the holistic care of persons.

This unit will focus on humanistic considerations associated with the dynamics of ageing. Students will be introduced to a range of understandings of the older person, of their social and physical environment, and of theories concerning the holistic health of elders. The Australian political economy, contemporary social issues and trends that impact on service delivery arrangements for healthy, as well as older people with disabilities, will be explored. Processes that may be used to assist the older individual to reach a sense of personal integration will be examined and critiqued.

The unit aims to assist students to understand the multidimensional needs of ageing people and to develop effective strategies for providing supportive structures in both social and professional contexts.  

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Explain “ageism” as a social problem and how it can impact upon the management of therapeutic care for elders (GA4, GA3)

LO2 - Analyse the philosophical and theological problems of suffering, joy and meaning as integral to theorising ageing (GA1, GA2, GA4, GA7)

LO3 - Utilise theories of ageing to the develop a model for the provision of therapeutic, holistic care of older people and their carers (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA7).

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

Content

Topics will include:

• Cultural (and trans-cultural) perspectives and contextual aspects in aging and life transitions;
• Theories and approaches for emotional and spiritual support (e.g. counselling, music, art, poetry, life review, reminiscence, storytelling, rituals);
• Strategies for formal and informal carers in providing therapeutic support and care to older individuals (healthy, with disabilities, chronically-ill, acutely ill, rehabilitative) in different settings (home, community, acute care, retirement villages, nursing homes);
• Suffering, joy, meaning and spirituality in the life of an older person;
• Social issues and trends in aged care e.g., de-institutionalisation, multiculturalism, housing, welfare, work, retirement, stereotypes, ageism, and elder abuse.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

ACU Online

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students are provided with choice and variety in how they learn. Students are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in situations similar to their future professions. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy of this unit aims to facilitate participants’ incremental and scaffolded appropriation of unit content in relation to their personal and professional experience and learning needs. The assessment tasks enable participants to synthesize and deepen their learning in the unit in view of the unit’s transformative educational philosophy. The unit utilises three assessments, each of which scaffolds unit content with respect to participants’ professional contexts and learning needs.

The first assessment task asks participants to revisit a broad range of unit content (e.g., module content, readings and forum discussions) culminating in a presentation concerning how key areas of learning impact practical situations. The second assessment task both builds on participants’ learning in the first and facilitates the participants’ focused appropriation of theory. The third assessment asks students to apply their learning to their professional context (e.g., in a case study). All three assessments provide a strong, practical connection between unit learning outcomes and participants’ professional roles.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Klein, D. Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life. Melbourne:

Text Publishing, 2012. 

Gawande, A. Being Mortal: Aging, Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End. London: Profile

Books, 2014.

Lustbader, W. Life Gets Better: The Unexpected Pleasures of Growing Older. New York:

TarcherPerigee, 2011.

Thomas, B. Second Wind: Navigating the Passage to a Slower, Deeper, and More Connected Life.

New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.

McNamara, L. “Theological Perspectives on Ageing and Mental Health.” Journal of Religious

Gerontology, 13:3-4 (2003): 1-16.

MacKinlay, E. and R. Burns. (2017) “Spirituality Promotes Better Health Outcomes and Lowers

Anxiety about Aging: The Importance of Spiritual Dimensions for Baby Boomers as They Enter Older Adulthood.” Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging, 29:4 (2017): 248-265.

MacKinlay, E. Ageing, Disability, and Spirituality: Addressing the Challenge of Disability in Later Life.

London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008.

Hopwood R.A. “Religion, Spirituality, and Health Behaviors: Intersections with Gender Diversity and

Aging.” In Hardacker C., Ducheny K., Houlberg M., eds. Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Health and Aging. Cham: Springer, 2019.  

McGlynn, C., O'Neill, M., and Schrage-Früh, M, eds. Ageing Women in Literature and Visual Culture

Reflections, Refractions, Reimaginings. Cham: Springer, 2019.

National Ageing Research Institute (NARI). “Inside the System: Aged Care Residents’ Perspectives.”

Research Paper 13, Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. 2020. https://agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-10/research-paper-13.pdf