Alarming elderly abuse
8793 nursing home residents harmed during pandemic
BASHED, robbed, starved or sexually abused – a record 8793 elderly Australians have been harmed in nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
An elderly resident is harmed every hour in aged care, on average, shocking new statistics reveal.
Official reports of abuse and neglect have doubled since the federal government widened the definition of “serious incidents’’ this year.
Aged-care homes reported 8793 cases of mistreatment – ranging from unexpected deaths, bashings and sexual assaults to emotional abuse or unexplained absences – to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission during 2020-21.
They include 4439 notifications of sexual assault or serious physical assault, and 837 cases of missing residents, between July 2020 and March this year.
Aged-care providers reported another 4354 cases of abuse in just three months, from April to June, under the Serious Incident Response Scheme.
Despite the shocking number of cases, only one agedcare home lost its registration last year, and just 25 were slapped with sanctions.
Aged Care Crisis founder Lynda Saltarelli said it was “disgusting’’ that so many elderly Australians were being harmed in taxpayer-funded nursing homes.
She said the assaults notified by nursing homes would be the “tip of the iceberg’’.
Ms Saltarelli called for the public release of information about the notified assaults.
“None of us know what the hell is going on in these places,’’ she said.
“You don’t know which homes are good or bad.
“We need to know which homes this occurred in – we want the ACQSC to stop protecting providers’ reputations and be accountable and transparent to the public about what’s going on in each and every aged care home in Australia.’’
The Royal Commission into aged care concluded that a “cruel and shameful’’ agedcare system was abusing elderly Australians in a “shocking tale of neglect’’.
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson said reports of abuse do “not automatically lead to regulatory action’’.
“Since April 1 … the commission has investigated a number of incidents … involving unexpected death, neglect, unreasonable use of force, unlawful sexual contact or inappropriate sexual conduct, unexplained absence, and stealing or financial coercion,’’ she said.