Navigating aged care options: A multi‐framing approach

This article addresses an increasingly common decision problem of navigating through the confusing options for elder care, via a case study relating to an elderly person, who lives alone, and whose physical and emotional/social health are of concern to her children. However, the thought of navigating the many care options, together with the emotions inextricably connected with the situation, makes this a tense situation for the family. This article describes the application of a multi‐framing approach to simplify the decision problem to a manageable task, to facilitate the generation and comparison of alternative modes of care for the elderly person, to meet the objective of keeping her ‘happy and healthy in the future’. The frames chosen are drawn from Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, and in particular, the Prerequisite Tree (PRT), together with Multi‐criteria Decision Analysis using Belton's Visual Interactive Sensitivity Analysis software. Building the PRT highlighted many obstacles, for example, the elderly person's desire for social interaction with peers, and her trouble hearing in group situations. The obstacles provided the basis for identifying the evaluative criteria for the multi‐criteria decision‐making phase. Five alternatives were identified, ranging from the status quo to a retirement village, which were evaluated using these criteria. The various alternatives were analysed for their strengths and weaknesses and overall performance before a recommendation was made for the family to consider further. The article also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the two methodologies and how their comparative strengths are used to advantage in this multi‐framing exercise. Finally we discuss the wider benefits of the process, as distinct from the ‘solution’.