Aged Care a Worry

[davidc4430]

Who out there is watching the horror stories comming out of the aged care sector and thinking, its not long and i'm going to be in one of these places?

Call for more scrutiny in aged care, after maggots found on woman in nursing home north of Newcastle

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-09/jayne-carter-opal-raymond-terrace-gardens-nursing-home-maggots...

kinda scary isnt it?

[not_for_sale2024]

This is not new, the aged care system has been a serious problem for decades. One of the main reasons is because many of the aged, as with the intellectally handicapped and mentally ill, do not have the capacity to defend their rights and take appropriate action when they are neglected and/or abused. A second problem relates to who therefore is looking out for them! Clearly, the politicians and overseers of health and care standards are not. Unfortunately, in many cases, the family and significant others are not either.

Until this abuse and neglect is fully brought to the public's attention, people will not be outraged enough to demand Government intervention and action. Again, unfortunately, the elderly who are out of sight are frequently out of mind. I think it will take a powerful support group or a passionate and unrelenting journalist to ignite this issue to the point where any real change is possible. I hope somebody stands up to lead the way.

[davidc4430]

my thought are this,

as most of us are going to wind up in an old folks home you would think we would want old folks homes to be exceptionally run places. do any of us really want to wind up in a dump where your treated badly mostly because not enough funding goes into aged care?

we should be screaming the house down demanding old folks homes are of the highest standard so we get the best possible care as we fade out of view.

not the cheapest care govt allows.

[icyfroth]

I guess if you haven't got children or other relatives to care for you, or monitor whether you're getting good care in the nursing home, you're pretty much at the mercy of the carers.

If you're old and all alone with not much money or old and all alone with a lot of money you can be just as lucky as unlucky with your carers, either way.

[springyzone]

It's disgusting.

I honestly think there is more accountability for prisoners than there is for the aged.

I know I have always felt really bad about my grandmother. She had a stroke towards the end of her life and ended up in a home for a few months. Mum couldn't take her as she still had 2 children living at home & she had heart troubles at the time.

Whenever we visited, the home looked fine. There would always be afternoon tea and so on served. Her son visited every day at dinner time and helped her.

But a couple of years after her death, that nursing home got named as one where they didn't feed the residents properly. I don't think that happened so much to my grandmother as my uncle was there daily, but we lived a fair distance away.

You should be able to rely on care in a nursing home.

I believe some hospitals are just as guilty of some forms of neglect. I have read of patients who are served a meal & if they can't open it (so many meals have little packets etc) or if they can't feed themselves, it just gets cleared away. one young woman with broken arms complained she nearly starved.

There are some cracks in care, that is for sure.

On the plus side, my brother went into palliative care a couple of years back & i was very impressed with the care there, including the fact they monitored exactly how much was eaten and helped out when needed.

Everyone deserves dignity & decent care.

[freddie*rooster]

This is an email I received today.

Our loved ones living in nursing homes deserve care from registered nurses when they need it. Unfortunately, this is no longer assured in NSW. A decision made at the Commonwealth level last year means that nursing home operators in our state don’t have to employ a registered nurse to look after our family members.

But, this Thursday, a Bill will be debated in NSW Parliament that could turn this around. If approved, it will make sure a registered nurse has to be on duty in a nursing home at all times.

Will you join us today by emailing your local Member of Parliament to let them know that you support this Bill?

Please click on the link below to find the contact details for your MP and ask them to vote to ensure a Registered Nurse is on duty in nursing homes at all times.

www.parliament.nsw.gov.au

People affected by cancer who live in nursing homes may have a range of needs. Here are just some of the ways that Registered Nurses care for our loved ones in aged care:

- delivering complex drugs and assessing side effects,
- assessing pain, and providing pain relief and psychological help to ease distress,
- assessing when our loved ones may be deteriorating, and making decisions about how their care should change as a result.

All people in nursing homes should be able to access this care in a timely way, and all families should have the peace of mind that their loved ones are always in the best possible hands. And while this immediate issue is about those in nursing homes, this is really about how we, as a society, care for our most vulnerable when they are in need .

So, will you email your MP by Wednesday morning and ask them to support the Bill?

The more we show our MPs we care, the more we can expect them to support the Bill in Parliament and ensure that all nursing homes must have an RN on duty at all times.

This is a simple step for each of us to take with huge implications for the care of our loved ones. I hope you’ll join us in ensuring the best possible care for those living in nursing homes.

[janeababe]

Freddie,

Thursday 4th May 2017

A bill to keep at least one registered nurse on duty at all times in high care nursing homes has today unanimously passed the NSW upper house.

ALSO: 
Copy this link to find a report on ANY NURSING HOME in Australia.

https://www.aacqa.gov.au/

(select) find a report on a residential care aged care home to see if they passed their most recent 3 accreditations.
By Law, they must meet the required 44 standards, every 3 yrs.

However, a facility, ANY FACILITY, is only as good as its staff.

[zanadoo_56]

It can be very very hard to even find a place in aged care, let alone whether the place is up to standard.

My father had Alzheimers and was in hospital with a medical condition.  When he was well enough to leave hospital he needed more care than the family could provide.  The hospital staff regularly hassled my mother about finding somewhere for my father to go but despite putting his name down at lots of homes there were no vacancies.

The 'problem' was solved when my father suddenly died of a heart attack.  The various homes were contacted to take him off their books but 6 months later my mother got a phone call from one of them to say a position was available for my father.

You hope you will find a good place to live out your days....but the way the system is at the moment it may come down to taking ANY place, good or bad.  That's the cold hard truth of it.

[freddie*rooster]

The best we can hope for is that we stay well enough to

stay in our own home and have help come into the home

to assist with the chores we are unable to do for ourselves.

I was fortunate enough to be within 10 mins drive from my

Mothers nursing home. I was there on a regular basis I even

took her washing and ironing home, I took cooking into her

and anything she wanted I made sure she got. I did see things

and reported them promises made but nothing done. My Mother

was well enough to relay any issues she had to me and they knew this.

Her palative care was a disgrace - but thankfully I was able to

be by her side during her final week. After Mum passed some of

Mum's property was taken from her room and given to other

residents - reported but nothing done. 

$250,000 Bond from that bond $300 per month was taken each

month for 5yrs when she passed the remainder of the bond was

sent to her Solicitor for her Estate.

Her monthly fees were about $2,000.00 . Those fees provided

her a room and meals. Everything else I had to provide for

her.

[davidc4430]

i think we all hope to stay out of aged care facilitys for as long as possible.

but for a very large number of us we do end up in one sooner or later.

so my view is, why are we not demanding every facility is of the highest standard.

my view on that is the whole end of life death thing, well we really dont want to think about it happening to us.

if we do have a family member in a home who we visit, i'm sure most of us are so glad we can leave, go home and sleep in our comfy bed. what we see, and more the smell in old folkes homes, its not a flower garden.

we are happy for the govt the spend billions on submarines and jet fighters that nearly all of us will never even touch. but a place where we will be living out our ends, we really dont care about.

we really should wake up to this situation.

if i wind up in a rolling chair dribbling being stuck in front of daytime tv all day every day, id at least like the people working there to take very good care of me.

i think everyone over 40 should take a visit to a few homes, take a good long look, then have a good think about how we would feel living there.