Research
Learning from lived experience
Through my various roles, I have engaged with hundreds of residential aged care facilities. I have conducted in-depth studies in aged care homes (through surveys, interviews, and focus groups), giving me insight into the lives of their residents and staff. I’ve witnessed the positive and negative extremes revealed in the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (2018-2021). I’ve seen aged care homes that are genuinely person-centred and those that are not.
I had some clues about what caused these differences, but I wanted to remove the guesswork through robust, credible, ethical, and formally endorsed research. So, I spent five years (2018-2022) in PhD research exploring the connections between person-centredness and leadership in residential aged care.
For the research to be honest and grounded in reality, I focused on people’s lived experiences. While theory has its place, I wanted my research to be true to people’s everyday lives and reflect the perspectives of everyone in the residential aged care community, encompassing residents, family members, and staff.
Such research is a journey. Its essence is captured through this poem below by T. S. Eliot, which gives an idea of my philosophical orientation; I hope it resonates with you as well.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
(No. 4 of Four Quartets, 1943)
In a nutshell
By concentrating on lived experience, my research was a bottom-up, inductive truth-finding process. It was alive to the complexity, richness, and ordinariness of everyday residential aged care. Within this context, my research revealed insights into the true nature of person-centredness and how it can be fostered.
At its best, residential aged care is about people living, visiting, working, and thriving in a caring human community. By deeply exploring participants lived experiences in such communities, my research revealed a meaningful way to realise that potential. It is about person-centredness extending from formal and informal leaders at all levels, permeating every part of the organisation, and nurturing caring relationships with all concerned. Put most simply, it is shared leadership from the heart.
If you want more detail, the AAA editor, Natasha Egan, wrote a brief article on the research for AAA online:
www.australianageingagenda.com.au/executive/person-centred-care-linked-to-quality-leadership
Doctoral thesis and published articles
Mack, S. (2022). The role of leadership in building, facilitating and sustaining a person-centred approach to working with residents, in the residential aged care environment. [Doctoral Thesis, Charles Sturt University]. Charles Sturt University.
To access the abstract directly or download the whole thesis:
Mack, S., Bernoth, M., & Biles, J. (2021). Researching aged care during COVID: Adapting to the unexpected: the use of an online medium while conducting qualitative interviews in residential aged care during COVID-19. 1. Paper presented at The 54th AAG Conference.
Access to the AAA articles is through subscription. Once logged in, the back catalogue of AAA magazines (since 2021) is available here:
Australian Ageing Agenda (AAA) articles
Title: Leading from the heart
Theme: Person-centred care thrives within a culture of positive relationships between everyone in the aged care home.
Edition: Mar-Apr, 2023 (pp. 32-33)
Title: It takes a village
Theme: A person-centred environment in residential aged care can successfully embrace the complexity of residents lives.
Edition: Jul-Aug, 2023 (pp. 34-35)
Title: Building a robust culture
Theme: Person-centredness should be the prime directive for staff and managers at all levels of aged care organisations.
Edition: Nov-Dec, 2023 (pp. 28-29)
https://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/features/building-a-robust-culture/