This is an interesting topic for me. I have an 85 year old mother in an aged care facility in country SA. It is attached to the local hospital. It is managed reasonably well, however there is certainly room for improvement with regard to the food and menus that are offered. I can also see things from a professional level as a nurse. Therefore I view things from my mother's perspective and from the nurses perspective.
There are insufficient qualified nurses working in the facility and whilst the assistants and volunteers do a great job, there should be more qualified nursing staff on every shift. Oh dear, I forgot, that costs too much money!
I have not witnessed any 'abuse' as such, however I am constantly bombarded with complaints from my mother about how the residents, and more particularly herself, are treated. Unfortunately my mother is a persistent complainer on all matters, even before she went into the facility. This means that it ends up being akin to the boy who cried wolf. I am not sure when to take her seriously. She claims that she has made her complaints known to the Aged Rights Complaints service, however when I follow it up, there have been no complaints lodged by her. This leaves me in a difficult position as I am never sure when to take it seriously and take up the issues with the staff.
I do share the concerns of those who do have problems with a facility as I know from experience that it does exist.