Woman, 43, tells of her aged care hell

LISA Corcoran desperately wants to be able to hug her children again – and to get the hell out of a nursing home.

The 43-year-old hates being stuck in the aged care facility, where she has lived for the past six years.

Her grandchildren are too scared to visit because of the screaming and crying going on around her. Living in a residential aged care facility is hell, she said.

“My No. 1 goal is to get the f--- out of the nursing home,” she told the aged care royal commission, with the help of her speech pathologist Jodie Chard. “My second goal is to hug my children. My third goal is to communicate better.”

Ms Corcoran used to be extremely lonely and isolated, as residents died around her.

She now has support workers funded through the National Disability Insurance Scheme who help her every day. “I still don’t like it but I have company now,” she said.

“Before that, I would just sit in my room and I couldn’t even twiddle my thumbs.”

The paralysed and wheelchair-bound woman had to fight to be washed more than once a week. She now gets showered every second day.

Ms Corcoran is waiting to move into supported disability accommodation through the NDIS. “I can’t wait. Every day is another day for me,” she said.

She continues her physical therapy with the hope of being able to hug her three daughters and three grandchildren.

Ms Corcoran shared her story with the Royal Commission into Aged Care in the hope of helping other younger people in residential aged care.

“We are human, every one of us and humans crave respect and we are all equal. I feel like I have lost that respect,” she said.