Tough decisions before aged care improves

NOW that the aged care inquiry report has been released – after our elected representatives tire of trying to score political points over an alleged rape that is claimed to have occurred more than 30 years ago – they will no doubt direct their attention to the theatrics of expressing their feigned shock and horror at the very disturbing treatment being experienced by all too many of the elderly, vulnerable members of our society in our aged care facilities.

They will then introduce a number of ineffective new laws, impose even more worthless reporting and administrative requirements on the aged care operators, commit to an increased level of taxpayer funded expenditure that will do little other than benefit the aged care operators and fund an ever-increasing level of totally ineffective bureaucracy.

Then in about five years we will have another enquiry so that a whole raft of new politicians can again express shock and horror at the treatment being experienced by vulnerable members of our society.

One aspect that the enquiry does not appear to have addressed and our politicians are loathe to discuss is how many of these vulnerable, mistreated elderly citizens would actually choose to spend their final days in the less-than-pleasant environment of an aged care facility, spending meaningless days drugged and restrained as their faculties decline until they reached a state of not knowing who they are or where they are whilst enduring the daily indignity of being toileted, bathed and fed by poorly trained, underpaid, constantly changing strangers rather than being afforded the opportunity to depart this life with dignity at a time of their choosing by means of the availability of voluntary euthanasia.

There can never be any excuse for mistreatment or abuse but one other area that politicians will be reluctant to discuss or criticise is the adverse effect of neglect by family members. Based on personal observations on all too many occasions after a “loved one” is placed into aged care the frequency and duration of family visits rapidly declines to the point where the residents’ physical and social welfare becomes the sole responsibility of underpaid and overworked staff with varying levels of commitment.

Provision of consistent and competent aged care is a very demanding and at times unpleasant task which requires a unique level of dedication and commitment.

Until such time as governments are prepared to legislate to provide the elderly with end-of-life choices and until such time as people come to recognise and accept that the placement of a “loved one” into aged care does not remove them from any ongoing responsibility for their welfare and wellbeing then regardless of how many new laws the government might care to introduce or how much extra taxpayer funding they may commit or how much they increase the level of bureaucracy they will have very little success in attracting and training the everincreasing level of staff with the appropriate levels of skill and commitment required to provide an acceptable level of quality care for all our rapidly increasing number of elderly citizens.

A review of the remuneration arrangements for the executives at many of our large privately-owned aged care facilities indicates that the level of their incentives and bonuses are in the main determined by the organisations financial performance rather than the quality of care provided which immediately conflicts them in their disbursement of any additional funding the taxpayer provides.