What constitutes a quality community aged care service—client perspectives: An international scoping study

Overwhelmingly, older Australians (people aged 65 years and older or 50 years and older for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) prefer to remain living in their own home rather than moving into residential care. To enable older Australians who require assistance to remain living at home, the Federal Government provides a wide range of community care services, the provision of which has increased substantially over the last 15 years. The importance of client preferences, prefaced by the introduction of consumer directed care across community aged care services, has gathered momentum in Australia following legislation in 2015. Older peoples' preferences differ in comparison to younger people with disability and those with mental health concerns. Older people focus more on the provision of services rather than the notion of independent living itself. This scoping review aimed to explore what aspects people aged 65 years and older consider to be important qualities of aged care services delivered in the community. A computerised search in MEDLINE, CINAHL, PubMed and PsychINFO and hand searches of the Cochrane database and Google Scholar were completed in May 2022. Sixty‐two articles met the selection criteria and were included in the review. Data were extracted using a fit‐for‐purpose protocol and analysed using the Miles and Huberman Model for thematic analysis. Results identified five themes representing quality domains that describe features that are important to clients: staff knowledge, respect for clients, a person‐centred approach, a collaborative partnership with clients and clear communication. When providers of community aged care services are planning to assess the quality of their services, these findings could be used to guide their evaluation. This will ensure that future services delivered accommodate the needs and preferences of clients who receive them.