The co-design of timely and meaningful information needed to enhance social participation in community aged care services: think tank proceedings

Objective: To determine what information from community aged care social participation and quality of life assessments needs to be captured, and meaningfully utilised as part of an integrated information and communication technology system.

Methods: Two think tank sessions comprised of community aged care staff and researchers (n = 9) were conducted over 5 weeks. The sessions were guided by the Continuous Quality Improvement framework. Thematic analysis was used to categorise the think tank data.

Results: To monitor progress over time, participants needed more contextual information captured in the assessment forms, such as client goals and outcomes of assessments. The aged care provider agreed to embed outcome measure score and action following assessment into its information and communication technology system.

Conclusion: Collaboration between aged care staff and researchers resulted in adjustments to the aged care provider's information and communication technology system to better target the monitoring and planning of its clients' psychosocial needs.