Rainbow Inclusive Aged Care Project

The Rainbow Inclusive Aged Care Project has been funded by the Australian Government's Medical Research Future Fund. This video will tell you about the project. We acknowledge and pay respect to the ancestors, Elders and descendants of the lands upon which we meet, work and learn. We're mindful that within and without the buildings, the land always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

Led by Southern Cross University, this project aims to improve the quality of residential aged care provided to gender and sexually diverse people. And to increase safety for all people from gender and sexually diverse communities visiting, living in or working in residential aged care. Currently, many gender and sexually diverse older people fear residential aged care and expect to be discriminated against by staff and residents. Unfortunately, these fears have been confirmed during the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and research which uncovered systematic discrimination and abuse in these settings. The evidence so far points to the need for collaboration between gender and sexually diverse older people, service providers, researchers and policymakers to design a rainbow inclusive model of residential aged care.

From 2024 to 2028, the research team will map what helps and what gets in the way of rainbow inclusive practice in residential aged care. We will co-create a rainbow inclusive model of residential aged care. We'll implement and evaluate the model in 12 residential care homes in Western Australia and Queensland. And we'll share what we learn, as well as the rainbow inclusive aged care model, with the wider aged care sector.

The Rainbow Inclusive Aged Care Project is being delivered through a partnership of five Australian universities working with aged care providers, Amana Living in Western Australia and Westerly Mission Queensland. The universities are Southern Cross University, La Trobe University's Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, University of Queensland, Edith Cowan University and University of New South Wales. They're supported by GLBTI Rights in Ageing (or GRAI), Rainbow Health Australia, Val's Ageing and Aged Care, Older Persons Advocacy Network, Ageing Australia (formerly known as the Aged and Community Care Providers Association), the Australian Association of Gerontology and LGBTIQ+ Health Australia.

The project team, made-up of LGBTQ+ researchers, has set up channels to engage with stakeholders over the life of the project. Including, first, a Lived Experience Advisory Group made-up of gender and sexually diverse older people who contribute their own stories of ageing, being caregivers and living with frailty, bloodborne  viruses like HIV and living with dementia. They'll help to make sure our model of care works for different LGBTQ+ people. With two communities of practice, one in Western Australia and one in Queensland, which include co-researchers, aged care staff and LGBTQ plus community organisations. The communities of practice will refine our research methods and will help interpret research findings to build the rainbow inclusive aged care model. Then they'll co-design the resources needed to implement the model in 12 residential aged care homes in Western Australia and Queensland. And finally, a National Reference Group, which includes key stakeholders who bring lived experience, practice wisdom, cultural knowledge, research and policy expertise to help shape a model of care that is transferable across the aged care sector.

In 2025, we'll conduct a survey of residential aged care workers across Australia. We'll observe how inclusive residential aged care works in 12 homes and we will interview 60 people, including residents, visitors and workers in the 12 participating residential aged care homes. Then in 2026, we'll have group discussions with residents, visitors and workers to come up with a shared vision for rainbow inclusive aged care. Staff from our two service provider partners, Amana Living and Wesley Mission Queensland, will participate in organisational summits where the vision and components of the rainbow inclusive care model will be fleshed out. In 2027, our communities of practice will draw on all of the research we've done to draft the rainbow inclusive aged care model and co-design resources for service providers to help implement the model. The model will be implemented and evaluated in 2027 and 2028, after which we'll refine the model and share it widely in a national forum.

Thanks for listening. To stay up to date with our project or to ask a question, contact me Meagan Voss via e-mail. Or you can contact the lead chief investigator, Professor Mark Hughes.