New normal taking a terrible toll on elderly

AGED care homes have been defined as “God’s waiting room”.

Sixty-eight per cent of Australians who have succumbed to COVID-19 are aged care residents. It is a statistic that repeated royal commissions and official inquiries have failed to adequately address or reduce.

To be in “aged care” is almost a death sentence for those whose families have no alternative but to place their elderly in care.

But “care” is a word loosely used to describe supervision, while the ratio is often one “carer” to 10 or 20 “clients”. It is profit before people. No government or private aged care home willingly reduces the client-to-carer ratio.

Rising costs across the board have affected the bottom line of every business, especially when clients have no alternative and no voice. In this age of pandemic hysteria, the aged, locked away from families and friends, are left wondering about their fate.

Many traditional families have their elderly living within their homes, providing for generational interchange and assistance. However, in the third millennium, family dynamics and structures have radically changed, so that many past their “use-by date” are sent away for strangers to care for, for economic or practical reasons.

This dilemma is exacerbated by patients with dementia, often confused or difficult to manage. Time constraints and the tyranny of distance may mean they exist alone.

It is the new “normal”, but comes at a great human cost.