A Game for People who Care
Introducing – Advocate, an interactive game designed to stretch your imagination, grow your empathy, and develop your persuasion skills. Through gameplay, Advocate is a transformative learning experience that will ensure you will never think about aged care the same way again.
Advocate enables aged care workers and their managers, family carers and the general public to advocate on behalf of older people living in aged care facilities. It is a real-world game, derived from real people, real stories, and real resolutions (proposed and debated) from the recommendations presented within the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care between 2019 – 2021.
The aim of Advocate is to foster deep discussions and meaningful reflections on the current experiences of older people living in aged care, and how we might enact change – translating learning from today’s game into tomorrow’s practice. This game can be played as an enjoyable form of professional development, with multiple benefits for players, including:
- An educational experience for learning the facts of aged care, the key issues and, potential
solutions - Developing critical thinking, prioritisation, and decision-making skills
- Build communication, public speaking, and compelling storytelling skills
- Learn to pitch and frame a problem and potential solutions, in a way that convinces decision-makers to take action
- Appreciate the difficult challenges facing aged care management, who must decide how to allocate limited budgets
- Connect with colleagues, friends, and family members in a new way, facilitating reflective practice and conversations on challenging topics
- A poignant real-world reminder of the humanity of older people living in aged care, and that is everyone’s responsibility to ensure they age with dignity
The following are images of the project team running a Advocate Card Game Session at World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) 2023 at Southbank Parklands, Brisbane.
What is included?
33 Person Cards
Who are you advocating for? There are 33 Person Cards in this game that represent people living in aged care, with differing mental and physical health issues, different interests, occupations and backgrounds. Your job is to be their advocate.
33 Story Cards
What are the stories of aged care? There are 33 Story Cards representing a diverse array of situations in aged care, from an older person receiving the wrong medication to experiencing depression, feeling unsafe, lonely, or bored in their residential aged care facility. All these stories have been drawn from real life situations shared from 2019 – 2021 with the Australian Royal Commission into aged care quality and safety.
30 Resolution Cards
How do you improve the experience of aged care? There are 30 Resolution Cards, canvassing social, interpersonal, medical, technological and spatial solutions that have been proposed to improve the day to day lived experience of aged care.
As well as a Tips & Resources Booket which includes evidence-based research.
Team
