time for another royal commission?

[davidc4430]

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/103112...

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!

[johcaschro]

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?

[not_for_sale2024]

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.

[springyzone]

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.

[freddie*rooster]

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.

[davidc4430]

---

@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.

[myoclon1cjerk]

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.

[zanadoo_56]

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.

[zanadoo_56]

---

@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.

[johcaschro]

---

@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.