News

Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety

With the release of its final report, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has shed light on inadequacies in Australia’s approach to aged care.

The Royal Commission not only points to a need for improved care and safety, but also highlights the importance of supporting older people to live a meaningful life.

At ACU, this is an issue we take very seriously.

Promoting human dignity in all aspects of life is at the heart of our ACU mission. Our Catholic perspective sees human dignity as a fundamental imperative, where every person possesses an inherent worth that must be respected.

This means providing high quality and innovative education and training to the healthcare professionals who will be involved in caring for older people. It also means applying our distinctive research lens to the understanding of ageing and working with communities to develop best practice models in aged care.

Collaboration with industry partners is a vital part of implementing effective reform. We will continue to work with our Catholic and non-Catholic partners to enact change that is targeted and evidence-based.

As a Catholic university, it is our responsibility to commit our skills and knowledge to ensuring that the dignity of the elderly is honoured.

Given our inherent strengths in education, research, and industry engagement across various sectors, I believe that we are aptly positioned to contribute to the wider conversation on how the issues highlighted in this report can be appropriately addressed.

ACU will therefore commit to working towards solutions to address this complex issue for the benefit of all.

Professor Zlatko Skrbis
Vice-Chancellor and President