When will Residential Aged Care Facilities learn that the very thing that is earning them money is the very thing suffering! RNs, EENs and care staff bust a gut to care for the frail aged in these establishments. Also suffering are the aged people we wish to care for but do not have the TIME to do it well; alas we are unable to do our very best. Though we want to...though we TRY...

Am I the only one outraged at the care standards.
Am I the only one stressed and angry that there isn't enough money, staff and resources available for decent Aged Care caring.
Am I the only one wanting to shout and jump up and down, and pull my hair out at this outrage. Our society should be shot.

Even though impoverished, for example, Vietnamese families NOT PUT there older people into 'homes'. They know how to do it and look after there own. IF we can't look after them, should we be accepting the sub standard care that is presenting. LOOK MORE CLOSELY at the resthomes. Don't just look at the 'prettiness', look at the staff racing around...

Western society do not revere our older people as we should. Our society do not put our older people on a pedestal and thank them for their most valuable of contributions to society. The war. Their country. If we did...the dollars would be rolling to care for these folks as they surely deserve.

What have we got to say to for ourselves? I can't hear you?

The next Budget simply has to have nore dollars for Aged Care otherwise we'll all pay for it one day. The "Because We Care" Campaign has to work. We need accountability, skilled staff and the correct staff mix, equality in pay and licencing of workers.

When do we need this? We need it NOW! Check out the Campaign

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3602#86239

Look at this CLIP is you wish to understand more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsO3B6FUqsM

Sorry....but THIS is the correct link to watch to get the gist of what is happening right under our noses in Aged Care.

Been waiting for the day when aged care workers actually go on an overdue well deserving strike and demand 'a doubling or tripling of their hourly pay rate' to bring them into line with the basic minimum ASO4 public service rate. I too have worked in aged care lasting 12 months. Physically and mentally draining HARD work. My admiration and heart always goes out to you people who do this work for years.

A girlfriend of mine has worked in aged care for two years and EXHAUSTED daily! She also makes up for the elderly's families' lack of visits, sacrificing her own time, spending it with her patients. She has a large family to raise yet loves her patients.

Many of her patients have not received a visit from their family on Christmas Day and at Easter time for years. However, many were quick to cash in on their elderly parents homes when they could not cope at home any longer.

In all fairness some people put most of their elderly parents money into the Nursing Home fees; others have taken all of the capital for their own benefit.

A neighbour worked in Aged Care for ten years, studied and accepted all of the grave yard shifts for years [this gave the long term staff breaks they normally would not have received]. Short staffed year after year. Shockingly low pay rates to date.

Strikes! Call up Belly Cakers.

If this wasn't such a "serious subject" I would have to say "tongue in cheek" the world needs god's right hand man a national socialist A Hitler or Mao Tse Tung or J Stalin another socialist also the god of deaths able servant as they knew what happens when a society make money an idol instead of a tool and knew how to cull the unloved and unwanted. Money is not the principle thing, Love is.

Well, what can we expect ? Some in society (not the one I subscribe to) have made a feast out of promoting greed. Deservedly so, this is now turning around & biting them in butt. The unfortunate aspect is that this dreadful trade has now placed everyone else into a position where they literally have to participate in order to compete. Everyone's so busy now that they have to pay other peoples' children to look after their parents. Many really do wish that parents fall off the perch as soon as they need some care. I dread to think how much our Super will be fleeced by the time we have to access it. And the worst part ? It's all Government sanctioned !
When we go back to a single income family only then will we have a slim chance to rectify this dreadful situation. To do that we need competent Government & to get that we need a thinking public to vote. As yet, I can't see the light at the end of this tunnel. The movies The Island & Soylent Green weren't that far off the mark.

I don't think many would disagree Cakers.

The low wages, staff shortges and conditions make it difficult to recruit for the aged care sector which further adds to this cycle of problems.

It is difficult to know what to do. If strike action were taken, relatives would need to pick up the gap in the care of their loved ones - that might make the pressure on government more potent.

The caring sectors (aged care and childcare for eg) are vital to the new ideology of 'working families' that supports the governments position on the onus of care to external providers rather than families (so that we can all be contributors to the economy). The reality is that social and wellbeing factors are low priority for both sides of politics.

Money is not everything for sure and those in caring positions often do it for the love and other rewards, but wages in this sector have been appallingly low for some time and fail to keep up with basic cost of living standards.

Perhaps tax breaks could be given to those in aged and child care similar to those who work for lower wages in the non-profit sector (charities and other community groups) in those institutions that don't operate for profit. (Maybe that already happens, I don't know).

Having known some aged people who've had to move into nursing homes, and knowing people who work in them, I'd rather die than end up in one.

individual,
"Everyone's so busy now that they have to pay other peoples' children to look after their parents.
I agree - and would add that the same busy people are also paying other peoples' parents to look after their children...very strange society we live in.

Dear Cakers,

Putting my step-dad into a nursing home was
one of the hardest decisions that my mother
and our family had to make. It was heart-wrenching.
However Pop had suffered a series of strokes, was
partially paralysed down his right-side, had lost
the power of speech and needed care 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. Mum was in her mid eighties,
and she'd looked after Pop for more than seven years
in their family home, but she finally couldn't do it
any more as she grew more frail herself. A nursing-home
was the only option we had. The family home was sold,
to be able to pay for the best nursing home we could
find (and we looked at them all in Melbourne).

Pop lived in the nursing-home for several years. Mum
visited him every single day, rain or shine. We visited
every single week-end without fail. And of course brought
Pop to our home for Christmas lunch, Easter, Birthday's,
Father's Day, and so on. We also took him on excursions,
and outings regularly.

Pop passed away last year. He's missed more then words
can ever express here.

You'd think in an aged-care facility , where
continuity of service is important, they'd have permanent
full-time staff - who'd know the residents and know their
needs. However, most of the staff here were casual,
agency-staffers, who came and went.
This lead to all sorts of problems that
could have been avoided. For example, Pop wasn't capable of
cutting up his own food (he only had one hand that he could
operate). So if they'd just leave his food in his room,
many times he'd go hungry because he couldn't cut it up.
Just as well mum visited him every day, she insured he was
fed.

The thing that needs to be changed is
the Standards of Accreditation of these places. They tend
to focus on things like room sizes, and external appearances,
rather then food, staff, and quality of care provided.

Putting pressure on State and Federal Governments will be
the only way to ensure changes.

Foxy,
You hit it on the head with the things that are focused on. Definitely and the only way for change is at State and govt levels. We have the "Because We Care" Campaign going for that very reason.

Digressng here, I shake my head when I think about the sort of questions prospective families with a older relative needing care should be asking but either do not or just wish to find a 'lovely looking' setting. The best judgement of a place is by WATCHING. Watching the pace of the workers, how long it takes to answer buzzers, the 1:1 time with a resident per day.
As an Aged Care RN, I am at the point where I wonder what I should do for myself in order to look after myself; Management are not appreciating my skills and love of the work. My reward is in knowing I do make a difference each day as rewards are monetary or verbal as such. Aged Care is money driven AND profit making now.
If only we could be in the 'old days' of one income families as the likelihood of having to pay for someone else to look after our most needy, that being our children and our elderly folk, wasn't the issue it is today.

Get out of the city.

After Qld health had finished with my mother, [99 in 10 days] she could no longer walk, & had to go into a large nursing home, in my near city country town. She was at deaths door.

Almost 5 months later they have nursed her back to much better health, although, despite a fair bit of physiotherapy, she still can't walk. She would like to go home, but I could not do the job.

Perhaps the job prospects are not so attractive in a country town, but the staff are constant, appear happy, & give excellent care. I am there, with free access, 3 or 4 times a week, & have never seen any staff not being very kind. Personally, I doubt I cauld do any where near as well, for mast of their residents. I take my hat off to them.

I don't know what the answer is, as these places are labour intensive.

As my mother owns her granny flat, beside my house, her assets mean we pay just under $900 a fortnight. It would be a strain if this was greater, as we can't realise on any of her assets. Centrelink make any dealing with her assets quite difficult.

I am not complaining about these costs, as I believe the elderly should contribute to their upkeep, if they can. I don't believe the tax payer should pick up all the costs, so the assets can be passed on untouched.

Still, it would be nice if they could advance the costs, & be reimbursed, later, from the estate, but I suppose this sort of thing is hard for public servants to do, properly.

Cakers, I can certainly feel your pain! I was an Aged Care RN up until 2 years ago, when I left to work in Community Care. I gave 9 years to that industry, and in the end it defeated me!

CJ <" Having known some aged people who've had to move into nursing homes, and knowing people who work in them, I'd rather die than end up in one."
CJ- only about 5% of elderly people end up in a Nursing Home. The rest are cared for in the Community by family, friends or Community staff like me.

There are good and bad aged care staff, and good and bad aged care residents, just as there are good and bad people in all walks of life in the wider community.

One can never say if one will end up in a Nursing Home because most of the time they have absolutely no choice. Most people are transferred there from Hospitals because they are unable to go home.

If you live alone and you are unable to look after yourself after a massive stroke for example, then you have no choice because you can't physically kill yourself!

So wouldn't it be more constructive to try to figure out ways to improve the aged care system so that if we are ever forced into them, it wont be such a terrible thing?

When the aged care industry realises that we need more trained Registered and Enrolled Nurses to care for the aged, rather than so many hastily trained and cheap personal 'care' assistants, we will have better aged care.

When the Government agrees to pay aged care nurses the same as hospital nurses, we will have better aged care because they will be able to attract and retain nurses.

When the Government does away with the ridiculous funding requirements expected of nurses, in preference to actual nursing care time with the residents, we will have better aged care.

Dear Susie,
Once people had a God given talent and that was their life ministry. Your talent is usualy your passion. Today money has become our passion and when lust for money is in control we are not and we need to get back balance. Without truth in our brave new world mankind is adrift on a sea of iniqity without a compass LOST without hope. Jesus put it so simply, put God first and love one another which brings back the balance. Love is a decision not a feeling. So to follow the words of Jesus requires a decision. If you do everything you feal like you will end up in deep *it up the creek without the proverbial paddle asking why it aint working. The 5th comandment says Honour father and mother so you have a good long life. We have lost the meaning of honour in our society today and replaced it with the word respect and excused our actions by following our feelings instead of the truth. To honour means to put first in the correct order. So put God first, then your family, then work, and last your church and you find as you apply that order in all your living life is simple. Foxy put it beautiful when she spoke of her step dad.

Suzeonline

I once worked in an administrative role in an Aged Care facility - the residents ranged from the mobile through to dementia sufferers. The carers and nurses worked their guts out for a pittance. I was paid more than anyone except for the manager and the DON. I didn't consider my work to be harder or of any greater value than the work performed by the caring staff. There is no equity in the human care sector. Someone like James Packer wouldn't last a day working in a dementia facility - yet we 'worship' people like him.

I will be moving soon to live with my mother and care for her - hopefully she will end her days in her own home. However, if her needs are such that I cannot cope I know there are excellent facilities and will ensure that she gets the best.

Apart from the issue of inequitable pay for caring staff, I cannot condone the fact of For-Profit facilities - conflict of interest as far as I am concerned. These organisations still receive government subsidies depending on the residents' medical requirements - the facility I worked for was a for-profit type residence.

Richie 10

Go make yourself useful and campaign for equitable pay for all nursing and caring workers.

Ritchie10, I am not sure of your meaning with all those nice words.
I'm guessing you think we should follow the commandment of honouring our father and mother?

All the honour and love in the world won't help you if you try to care for a very demented parent in your own home by yourself.

Many wonderful children and spouses have tried to feed, wash, toilet, medicate, keep safe, and love their relative until they themselves have been run into the ground and become ill themselves.

People like you who suggest they should do it all for the love of your God just make life so much worse for those who have tried so hard to keep their elderly relatives at home with them and are just physically and mentally not able to do it.

Walk a mile in their shoes before you pass judgement on them.