Probe into aged care long overdue

NEWS of a royal commission into Australia’s aged care industry is not only long overdue but sure to be welcomed by anyone who has ever had to place a loved one in aged care.

For years this multi-billion dollar industry has been an ongoing source of horror stories, from reports of physical abuse to poor quality food, neglect due to understaffing and drugging residents to make them more manageable.

It is the only industry I know of where a person can be financially bled dry in return for the barest of bones in terms of care and respect.

Truth is, the experience of having to place two loved ones in care over the years left my stomach churning.

A mum with advanced dementia who could no longer be left alone went into a nursing home where at least we knew she would be safe.

Until the day I visited and found her sporting a whopping black eye, the product of “a fall’’, I was told.

She may well have suffered a fall but what upset me was the fact no-one had bothered to phone to let me know. Nor had anyone bothered to get her checked out by a doctor.

And because of the dementia she didn’t even know she had a black eye let alone remember how she got it.

Fact is I’ll never know for sure how she came by the injury but the doubt lingers.

In the second instance, a partner spent his final weeks in a nursing home after it became physically impossible for me to care for him at home.

It seemed no expense was spared in the building of this brand spanking new facility and, at first glance, it was certainly an impressive place.

But it soon became clear they were hopelessly understaffed, the food, in contrast to the surroundings, was mostly inedible and a party pie for Saturday night dinner was hardly what I would call appetising, let alone healthy and nutritious. Fresh fruit was non-existent. Calling out for help in the middle of the night to use the toilet and no-one coming was another issue. So one night I drove to the nursing home to check things out for myself.

What I found was an overworked skeleton staff battling to keep up with demands.

They simply didn’t have the numbers to cope with every call.

Witnessing the distress of a loved one who feels they have been abandoned in the final stages of their lives by the very people they thought would care for them, is not for the faint-hearted, I can tell you.

The changes needed to bring Australia’s aged care facilities up to speed are about as plain as the nose on your face and you don’t need a royal commission to sort it out.

For a start, introduce major (compulsory) increases in trained staff-to-patient ratios and improve the quality of food served up to residents because, at present, they eat better in jail.

Make CCTV compulsory in every resident’s room to monitor staff/patient interaction.

And ensure all foreign-born staff speak fluent English so they can properly communicate with ageing residents, many of whom are already hard of hearing.

As a nation we owe it to our elderly to treat them with dignity and respect, not just pay lip service to a multi-billion dollar industry in denial of its failings.

And we should all speak out and provide a voice for the most vulnerable in our communities, because at the moment they have bugger-all chance of being heard.

I hope this royal commission will leave no stone unturned, that the Federal Government will implement its recommendations and nursing home operators will finally be brought to heel, made accountable and forced to lift their game.

It cannot come soon enough.