Research & Innovation
We are committed to offering our customers the best care and support, as informed by best practice. It is part of our quest to develop new ways of ensuring we continue to meet our customers’ needs and aspirations as they transition through aged care.
A new model of care being developed by Royal Freemasons in partnership with the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) is founded on evidence-informed research. The project first commenced in 2016, and received a $1.2m Commonwealth grant last year to extend the project integration and evaluation to seven of our residential aged care homes.
It has received widespread interest and support by our residents’ families and our employees. Known as For You For Life Tapestry, this whole-of person approach helps assess and coordinate each resident’s journey across aged care. It promotes communication and family inclusion through the use of documentation and summary tools to graphically capture changes in emotional, mental and physical health. In this way it supports proactive team approaches in care and enables more realistic expectations for families regarding the pathway or trajectory of disease and decline.
In June 2018, the Tapestry team presented the research findings and project scope at the International Dementia Conference in Sydney. The research team presented its research at the Australian Association of Gerontology Annual Conference in November 2018.
In 2018/2019 a new Quality Document Management System was implemented to enable better information management efficiency and accuracy. The innovative system is a testament to our continual efforts to enrich workflow management and strive for operational excellence.
We work in partnership with a number of organisations to improve what we do such as Deakin University who supported us to improve our staff’s skill base in mental health care. We collaborated with La Trobe University on a project to up-skill our staff in Emotional Intelligence which contributes to a better customer experience. We partnered Alzheimer’s Victoria to put on the first ever conference looking at intimacy as we age.
Our expert staff members are involved in the State Government’s Medicine Senior Reference Group and we are involved in an international skills exchange program with SIM University Singapore. We also regularly receive visitors from overseas keen to learn about what we do and to see the facilities that we have built. Recent visitors have been from Japan, Malaysia, China and Singapore.
We want our customers to receive exceptional care. These are just a few ways we ensure this happens. You will be able to relax, knowing you are in the best of hands.
