Sex-ed for rest homes?
More people are talking about sex in rest homes and Age Concern is thrilled.
"The general public have been appreciative of us raising the issue," Age Concern Nelson Tasman manager Sue Tilby said. "Even older people themselves have rung up and congratulated us for bringing this topic out in the open."
Buoyed by the "extremely large amount of positive feedback" after highlighting the matter last month, Tilby and her team now hope to have an education package on sexuality and intimacy in residential aged care ready by November to roll out to rest homes in the Nelson-Marlborough region.
The issue had become a coffee table discussion in some workplaces and homes.
"It got groups of people talking about it," Tilby said, before adding tongue in cheek: "I just thought it was an area that no-one had thought about because, as we know, sex stops at 40."
Age Concern last month hosted a seminar on the issue for rest home managers. It was presented by Massey University School of Nursing senior lecturer Dr Catherine Cook, who has been researching the issue with School of Social Work Associate Professor Mark Henrickson.
Cook said she was "absolutely delighted" by the work of Age Concern Nelson Tasman.
"We need to put this in the public domain; there's going to be a ballooning ageing population."
Cook said with little or no education or guidelines in place, aged-care workers generally used their own judgment, usually based on their own moral code rather than focusing on residents' sexual rights.
"They are managing the situation as best they can but when dilemmas become complex, staff don't know what to do, " she said.
Since the seminar, the team at Age Concern had been researching the issue and "putting together information that's going to be helpful and non-confrontational", for rest homes, including case examples.
"What we want to do is try and bring in real stories," Tilby said.
The Code of Rights under the Health and Disability Commissioner Act would drive some of the policy.
"For example, if a man chooses to bring a prostitute into the rest home, according to his rights, he can do that," Tilby said. "Some of the areas are very clear if it comes down to the right of a person."
However, other areas were not so clear, such as "when you are talking about consent, dementia, family having a problem with things so these become a little more complicated". They would need to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
"It's extremely exciting and privilege for us to bring this education into rest-home level care," Tilby said. "What we want to do is support the rest homes and make this topic a lot easier for them to deal with."
The policies and procedures would be designed to help stop any ad hoc decision making based on the beliefs and values of individual staff members.
It was likely the education package would be provided to rest homes at two levels: for the nursing/management staff and then for caregivers and other staff.
Age Concern was keen to bring Cook back to Nelson to help develop the education package.
Tilby said she believed Age Concern had buy-in from many rest homes.
Once the package was delivered to rest homes in Nelson-Marlborough, it could go out nationally.
"I think it would be really beneficial to share it [nationwide] through Age Concern," Tilby said.
Written by Cherie Sivignon. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.