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Explore consumer experience in aged care

This page includes data available at December 2020. You can download data directly from the visualisations by clicking in the graph area and using the 'download' menu. The AIHW notes that results should be interpreted with caution considering factors such as survey sampling, response rates and representativeness.

In this section, you can explore information on the results of the Consumer Experience Report (CER) survey, including a breakdown by service and consumer characteristics.
Since 2017 the former Australian Aged Care Quality Agency (AACQA) and its successor, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), have conducted surveys to obtain feedback on consumer experiences in residential aged care services, in conjunction with its service audit procedures.

The results from the CER provide insight into people’s experience of living in residential aged care based on their answers to 10 questions across three dimensions:

  • the care environment (social, physical, functional)
  • the organisational aspects of care provision
  • respect and autonomy.

Most people in residential aged care feel safe, respected and that their healthcare needs are being met 

Overall, positive responses were given by a large majority of respondents for each  of the questions.

  • Overall, between 80–98% of people surveyed responded positively to the different questions.
  • Most people (98%) reported that they felt safe all or most of the time.
  • The majority (98%) of people also reported that their healthcare needs were met, and a similar proportion reported that they were treated with respect all or most of the time.
  • People responded less positively to questions about liking the food (85%) and having staff available to talk to if they are feeling sad or worried (80%).
This bar chart displays resident responses and is filtered by the ten questions of the consumer survey in 2017–19. ‘Always’ was the most common answer for questions 1–5, ‘Most of the time’ was the most common answer for question 6, and ‘Agree’ was the most common answer for questions 7–10.
Positive response
A ‘positive response’ means that a person answered either ‘Always’ or ‘Most of the time’ to questions 1–6 or ‘Strongly agree’ or ‘Agree’ to questions 7–10 of the CER survey.

What factors are associated with positive responses?

  • People living in services with a higher proportion of people born in English-speaking countries responded more positively than people living in services with lower proportions of residents born in English-speaking countries.
  • Respondents in smaller or not-for-profit residential facilities reported more positively than those in larger or private residential facilities.
  • Residential aged care services with higher resident mobility needs— measured by the proportion of residents needing help—showed consistently lower levels of positive responses across the 10 questions.
This line chart presents the proportion of positive responses to the 10 survey questions in 2017–19, by proportion of people in a service born in English-speaking countries. It shows that services with the lowest proportion of people born in an English-speaking country had the least positive responses when asked ‘If I’m feeling a bit sad or worried, there are staff here who I can talk to’.

To learn more about the Consumer Experience Report survey, and to explore the data in more depth, see the full report. 

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