Contemporary Issues in Ageing
PostgraduateMUR-SHP5022024
Course information for 2024 intake View information for 2025 course intake
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- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Part of a degree
- Duration
- 15 weeks
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Contemporary Issues in Ageing
About this subject
On successful completion of the subject you should be able to:
- Communicate biological, psychosocial, cognitive, and spiritual influences on healthy ageing and implications for professional practice.
- Discuss the legal and ethical aspects of care for older people from diverse backgrounds demonstrating cultural responsiveness, advocacy, and support during life transitions.
- Outline the contemporary Australian healthcare system, funding models, practice standards, and future directions, including implications from the Royal Commission into Quality and Safety in Aged Care.
- Evaluate evidence-based approaches to support older people and family caregivers to navigate the continuum of healthcare recognising the multidisciplinary requirements of gerontology.
- Critique practice and policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and implications for aged care preparedness for future infection outbreaks.
- Biological theories of ageing; psychosocial, cognitive, and spiritual aspects of ageing; and holistic perspectives of healthy ageing to emphasise strengths, resilience, capabilities; disease prevention, and minimisation of disability.
- Diversity and transitions in older age including cultural and linguistic diversity, sexuality, gender diversity, elder abuse, grand-parenting, retirement, widowhood, moving to supported living.
- Legal and ethical aspects of older person’s health care, including health disparities and impaired decision-making capacity.
- The healthcare system (primary care, acute care, residential aged care, home-based community care; funding; practice standards; fragmentation).
- Partnering with older people and family caregivers to navigate the continuum of care: health literacy; transitional care; rehabilitation.
- Implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for older people living in the community and aged care facilities, informing aged care policy and practice in regard to infection control, end of life care, and future preparedness.
This foundational unit is designed to foster knowledge and critical inquiry into current issues in aged care across a range of healthcare settings. Students will apply theoretical approaches to understand ageing in the 21st century; the promotion of healthy ageing; and the provision of ethical multi-disciplinary care for older people from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, students will explore the complexity of the contemporary Australian healthcare system, and the support of older people to navigate the continuum of care. Students will also appraise policy and practice implications emerging from the most prominent issues in contemporary Australian aged care, the Royal Commission into Aged Care and the Covid 19 pandemic.
- Problem Solving Task (20%)
- Essay (40%)
- Annotated Bibliography (40%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
Part of a degree
To enrol in this subject you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:
Core
- MUR-GHC-GCE-2024 - Graduate Certificate in Gerontological Healthcare
Others
Enrolment in a Graduate degree.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
Related degrees
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Graduate Certificate in Gerontological Healthcare
PostgraduateMUR-GHC-GCE