Audit of Residential Facilities, Final report - Division for Social Policy ...

While the guideline for frail care services adopts firstly a developmental approach towards ageingas well as the new approach to ageing which requires that frail older persons remain in thecommunity for as long as possible, the Department acknowledged that there will always be thoseolder persons who will need residential care due to circumstances. Therefore, the 2% of olderpersons in public and private residential facilities (old age homes), and frail care units inretirement villages are covered in this guidelines (as well as the 3% of frail persons in thecommunity that will benefit from day care and home-based care services. The primary purposefor developing a guideline is to ensure that quality services to frail older persons living in frail carefacilities and communities are accessible, affordable, comprehensive and equitable.In compliance with the Act, in 2008, the Department produced a revised document on thenational norms and standards for the acceptable level of service that must be provided to olderpersons. These norms and standards prescribe the acceptable levels of services that should beprovided to older persons and in terms of which services must be monitored and evaluated. Anyperson who provides a service to older persons must comply with the norms and standards.It is against this backdrop that the next section presents the findings of the national audit.29 | D S D A u d i t o f R e s i d e n t i a l F a c i l i t i e s