topic time for another royal commission? in Community Spirit

time for another royal commission?

davidc4430 — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 03:46:07 GMT

Disability carer recorded saying 'I just wanna f***ing beat these kids without risk

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-28/disability-carer-recorded-verbally-abusing-autistic-boy/10311258

they keep saying aged care and disabilty care sectors are growing areas for employment, well seems they are not very careful who they hire.

could it be 'if you pay peanuts you get monkeys'?

working with elderly and disabled people takes a real mental strength most of us just dont have.

we are pretty much all heading towards being cared for eventually so you would think we would want only the best suited to the job doing it to us!

Re: time for another royal commission?

johcaschro — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:38:33 GMT

Proper and adequate funding by govts. (both state and federal) to provide highly skilled and professional staff is long overdue in most of the health care sectors.

The problem is much worse in the private sector where operating costs versus profit is a major factor.

Professionally skilled and educated staff bring with them a culture and ethos of professionalism and a commitment to the provision of high quality care.

Even in state hospitals there has been an ongoing problem with the govt's reluctance to provide an adequate number of nursing staff (it's always been the case for as long as I can remember).

High quality care is expensive and always will be, so what we need is govt to adequately fund the health care services.

As for the private sector, well what else can we expect but sub-standard care when they have an eye on profits which over-rides their commitment to provide qualty care?

Re: time for another royal commission?

not_for_sale — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 12:19:59 GMT

I think you are right David, 'if you pay peanuts you get monkeys'.

And a lot of the workers are young and don't have enough life

experience to cope with the responsibility. A lot of people have

a lot to answer for. The current situation is unacceptable.

Re: time for another royal commission?

springyzone — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 22:59:46 GMT

I don't know that you necessarily need to pay huge wages to get good staff but it depends on what the job is.

I've often thought the government doesn't go about this the right way and I've noticed quite a few shortfalls in treatment in hospitals as well.

Bottom line is you do need medical staff-nurses etc to oversee things.

But what i noticed in hospitals is if anyone is weak, elderly or in some way unable to feed themselves, the job can get rushed. I think it could work better if there was some category of worker called hospital or Nursing home carer. People would need some training of course, but their job could be to do some of the routine tasks-feeding, changing bed linen, basic caring tasks. It need not even be full time shifts. I can see eg a 4 or 5 hour shift covering 2 mealtimes.

There are a lot of retired people or people in their 50s & 60s who would probably be prepared to do this sort of job at a basic wage level, leaving nurses to attend to the medical side of things.

When it comes to caring for people with disabilities, I think that anyone who is wanting to beat them is not the right person for the job. At the moment, what i see though is that some people with major disabilities are looked after by family & that can be a good thing. I've a brother in law in this boat but the trouble is, there needs to be more support for the carers, people who can go into the home, maybe provide some relief for the carer to go out. There is some of this available but not enough.

Re: time for another royal commission?

freddie*rooster — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 23:21:01 GMT

I have a 90yr old neighbour she has the best of care by care staff

who come into her home to assist with her showering and dressing -

they also tidy her unit change her bed dust vac and do shopping

for her as required. She is happy to be in her own home and cared

for - I understand this is a Government package - and wonder why

there isn't more of this care available. I think she pays a % of the

care which would be far less than what it would be costing the

Government if she was in a Nursing Home.

Re: time for another royal commission?

davidc4430 — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 01:04:55 GMT

@freddie*rooster wrote:
I have a 90yr old neighbour she has the best of care by care staff

who come into her home to assist with her showering and dressing -

they also tidy her unit change her bed dust vac and do shopping

for her as required. She is happy to be in her own home and cared

for - I understand this is a Government package - and wonder why

there isn't more of this care available. I think she pays a % of the

care which would be far less than what it would be costing the

Government if she was in a Nursing Home.

its wonderful your neighbour has the right care and the system is working for them as it should.

i'm sure there are many many people living well cared for by the system.

but its all the people who are not getting cared for properly and the system isnt seeing as being misstreated that must be adressed.

thats why a the royal commission into aged care should have been expanded to include those with disabilities or even a seperate commission called.

but none of these commissions will help if the government of the day doesnt put the $$$ in that are required to make the system work plus put in place laws that protect the elderly and disabled 100% from misstreatment.

Re: time for another royal commission?

myoclon1cjerk — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 03:16:23 GMT

They've had several inquiries into aged care over recent years and if the recommendations had've acted upon, most of these problems would'nt exist. This Royal Commission is simply an exercise in polishing Morrison's public image. He can go to hell as far as I'm concerned.

Re: time for another royal commission?

zanadoo_56 — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 04:26:25 GMT

Not just qualifications and experience are required. The right temperment to care for the young or elderly is a must.

Just in hospitals I've seen staff who haven't the patience for the job. Thankfully most are great but there was one staffer who was rude, demanding and unrealistic in an expectation what some patients could do for themselves. Last I heard, the staffer was on report. Hopefully that person will not be staying in that hospital.

Re: time for another royal commission?

zanadoo_56 — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 04:39:44 GMT

@freddie*rooster wrote:
I have a 90yr old neighbour she has the best of care by care staff

who come into her home to assist with her showering and dressing -

they also tidy her unit change her bed dust vac and do shopping

for her as required. She is happy to be in her own home and cared

for - I understand this is a Government package - and wonder why

there isn't more of this care available. I think she pays a % of the

care which would be far less than what it would be costing the

Government if she was in a Nursing Home.

My mother receives home help (not as much as mentioned above) so she can stay in her home. She talks about one day moving to an aged care facility, but after watching the two part Four Corners episode on aged care I hope it never comes to that.

I also need help due to mobility problems but I am too young to get for example, help from the council, so I have to pay full price....which even if I could afford it, for the list of things some of these companies will do, there's a long list of what they won't do I've yet to find one that covers my requirements, which aren't much but quite specific. I dread the day I may need to move into care if these are the (low) standards of care the elderly can expect.

Re: time for another royal commission?

johcaschro — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 08:37:16 GMT

@zanadoo_56 wrote:
Not just qualifications and experience are required. The right temperment to care for the young or elderly is a must.

Just in hospitals I've seen staff who haven't the patience for the job. Thankfully most are great but there was one staffer who was rude, demanding and unrealistic in an expectation what some patients could do for themselves. Last I heard, the staffer was on report. Hopefully that person will not be staying in that hospital.

It's just that it's much more likely that properly educated and professionally qualified staff will have the right temprament and attitude because they have chosen the health professions as their career.

What you have probably seen are staff who are experiencing burn-out and terminal frustration with their workload because they have to work under-staffed and under-resourced almost every day of their working lives.

and it's much, much worse in the private health-care sector. I know this as I have worked in aged care, rehab, disability care, acute care, mental health, psycho-geriatrics, acute care, both medical and surgical, paediatrics . . . you name it, I've worked there over many years.

Re: time for another royal commission?

janeababe — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 12:08:38 GMT

@johcaschro wrote:
@zanadoo_56 wrote:
Not just qualifications and experience are required. The right temperment to care for the young or elderly is a must.

Just in hospitals I've seen staff who haven't the patience for the job. Thankfully most are great but there was one staffer who was rude, demanding and unrealistic in an expectation what some patients could do for themselves. Last I heard, the staffer was on report. Hopefully that person will not be staying in that hospital.

It's just that it's much more likely that properly educated and professionally qualified staff will have the right temprament and attitude because they have chosen the health professions as their career.

What you have probably seen are staff who are experiencing burn-out and terminal frustration with their workload because they have to work under-staffed and under-resourced almost every day of their working lives.

and it's much, much worse in the private health-care sector. I know this as I have worked in aged care, rehab, disability care, acute care, mental health, psycho-geriatrics, acute care, both medical and surgical, paediatrics . . . you name it, I've worked there over many years.

@johcashro

100% spot on!

But... even a well trained staff member, can have a bad day, act out of character, maybe even speak in a rude manner..... not all patients are delightful little old men and women! The years roll on and each day can have its limits.

Not all mature aged carers are compassionate either, and I’ve worked in this industry for 32yrs. I’ve worked alongside some fantastic younger generation staff members. There’s absolutely no place for stereotypes in this debate!

I also love love, bloody love, that all these arm chair warriors know how to fix the problems, yet they’ve never wiped a dirty bum in their life, never showered an elderly person, never changed a colostomy bag that’s burst everywhere, never cleaned and dressed a ulcerated wound that you could literally place your whole fist in, never removed a set of dentures to clean them, never worked with high needs dementia clients who scream most of your shift, or throw items at you, or physically attack you! I don’t see them getting to work by 0630hrs with a smile on their face to start a 8hr shift with minimal staff and a heavy work load! Yet, they know what’s wrong with the system, and bugga me dead, they know how to fix it!

Integrity cant be taught!

Honesty can be taught.

You have to work with what you’ve got and some days you have wonderful team to work with, other days, you’ll wish you just stayed home in bed!

But life, and work, must go on.

Then when that’s all said and done, you’ve got the all-knowing families to deal with. Because they know better than you, but aren’t prepared to look after their ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ themselves! .... but that doesn’t stop them speaking to you or treating you like you are not worthy of their respect, but they expect you to treat them with high regard!

For every abusive nurse or carer, there’s 20-30 great nurses and carers..... And we do the job that you guys won’t! And we are amazing at what we do. We work horrible hours for woeful wages, and we work weekends and miss out on family time!

So instead of blaming nurses, and blaming the trainers and educators, how about you start praising them for the wonderful job that they do, and will continue to do.

If we didn’t look after YOUR family, then you’ll have to and let’s face it, you’ve already made that decision not to!

Re: time for another royal commission?

davidc4430 — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 00:15:18 GMT

the day is comming when cameras will be installed in every aged care home and every disabled persons living area.

just because we can no longer trust thos who are careing for our loved ones.

so our loved ones will lose their privacy because some care givers dont care.

you can bet once its known your on camera incidents of abuse will slow to almost nil.

i hope it doesnt get like the police in the USA that even when they know they are being filmed they still abuse people daily.

they really dont care anymore.

Re: time for another royal commission?

freddie*rooster — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 06:22:05 GMT

Janeababe if I could give 10 kudo's for your post I would -absolutely

the best post I have read on these boards for ever so long - and

Thank you for caring for the sick and aged you are a credit to your

profession.

Re: time for another royal commission?

zanadoo_56 — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 04:06:24 GMT

The person I mentioned who was facing possible disciplinary action was VERY intimidating but I didn't lodge a complaint. There was another incident but this time there were other nurses and staff. I was surprised at what happened as no one had done anything wrong to cause such bad behaviour....and I looked around at the other staff and they clearly didn't support this person. I wouldn't be surprised if formal complaints came from the staff, not the patients. When you are at the hospital's mercy you don't like to rock the boat, besides it is difficult to remember who the staff are from one shift to the next.

I agree age has little bearing on whether staff are good or bad (most are good) but my experience has also been that ethnicity MAY play a part, perhaps in the training given overseas and different care expectations there. I don't know for sure....and this is not true in all cases of course.

As for a family that can't (or won't) care for elderly relatives.....my mother is adamant she doesn't want 'to be a burden'. I understand where she is coming from. In my situation I have no children, and other relatives have their own immediate families to care for. Some kind of assisted care is staring me in the face...unless I am fortunate enough to die first, in which case: Problem solved! 🙂