It's disappointing that aged care homes seem to be falling well short of the mark when it comes to safety and quality care for our elderly. In the late 1990s I was faced with the unpleasant task of placing my mother in an age care facility.
I was disappointed in the level of care my mother was receiving, I swapped her from place to place, but was never satisfied by any of them. I was doing all her washing and providing some of her favourite meals. I began to do some research into each facility and found many of them only had the one qualified nurse (who obviously couldn't work 24/7), and found a few that didn't have a single registered nurse on their pay roll. Many of the staff were volunteers whose hearts were in the right place but they were unskilled.
It was around this time that there was an investigation into aged care homes, many of which fell well short of levels which were considered acceptable. I remember the current affairs programs were hot on the subject at the time. Unfortunately, I lost my mother not long afterwards so I never followed up on the investigation, but rested assured that things were going to change.
Here we are, more than 20 years later, and we still don't appear to have appropriate standards for these places. Doesn't put my mind at ease for if/when I may need one in future.
I was disappointed in the level of care my mother was receiving, I swapped her from place to place, but was never satisfied by any of them. I was doing all her washing and providing some of her favourite meals. I began to do some research into each facility and found many of them only had the one qualified nurse (who obviously couldn't work 24/7), and found a few that didn't have a single registered nurse on their pay roll. Many of the staff were volunteers whose hearts were in the right place but they were unskilled.
It was around this time that there was an investigation into aged care homes, many of which fell well short of levels which were considered acceptable. I remember the current affairs programs were hot on the subject at the time. Unfortunately, I lost my mother not long afterwards so I never followed up on the investigation, but rested assured that things were going to change.
Here we are, more than 20 years later, and we still don't appear to have appropriate standards for these places. Doesn't put my mind at ease for if/when I may need one in future.
