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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2019 9:39:29 GMT 7
Rural NSW couple tell of aged care snub
A 72-year-old woman has broken down in tears as she recalled her difficulty obtaining appropriate aged care help on a rural farm outside a NSW country town. Sue and Phil Dunlop, who have been married for 53 years, gave evidence together on Tuesday at the second day of the aged care royal commission's hearings in Mudgee in the NSW central west.Mrs Dunlop, who suffers from arthritis and uses a walking stick, said she considered it important to speak out about the couple's experience. She recounted a home care provider's attempts to ignore them, with phone messages often going unreturned and emails unanswered. The couple, who now have a provider they are happy with, also said they had to "fight and fight" to be refunded for charges for services they hadn't received. "I don't want other people to have to keep going through that when they just live out of town a bit," Mrs Dunlop said during an emotional hearing. They noticed a decline in service from their previous provider, which was not named, when local management changed in mid-2018. In December that year, after carers said they had almost rolled their car on the dirt track to the Dunlops's house in an unnamed NSW town, they were informed their package of a few hours home help a week had been suspended. "That sort of left Sue over the Christmas period with virtually nothing," Mr Dunlop, 73, told the commission. Their package was reinstated and then suspended again within a week after Mr Dunlop left his unloaded gun, usually kept in a safe, in a room in the house as he watched out for a fox preying on his chickens. He said he was surprised the carers had not mentioned anything to the couple during the visit, which could have resolved their concerns, and instead contacted police. Mr Dunlop said one coordinator had made a pertinent comment on a house visit, asking why the couple live "right out here". "As far as she was concerned we were in the middle of nowhere," he said. Mrs Dunlop became emotional when she described how the home they'd lived in for 42 years in the Blue Mountains had burned down and her feelings of contentment when they moved into their current property. "But it is so so hard when you can't get any help out there," she added. She said it was important to her to remain in her own property with her husband. "This is what these packages were brought out for, to try and keep people in their own homes, which is a very good idea. I would hate to be in a nursing home," she said. Over the three days, the commission is hearing from individual witnesses, government representatives, academics and aged care providers. The royal commission's interim report was released last week ahead of the final report due in November 2020. www.perthnow.com.au/politics/law-and-order/rural-nsw-couple-tell-of-aged-care-snub-ng-s-1977630
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2019 8:07:57 GMT 7
Standing beside our frail elderly, in the centre of life
A month before the aged care royal commission released its interim report, two nurses from a low-income country visited our hospital unit on an observership. They found many similarities, but one particular difference fascinated them, something which until now I would not have called a phenomenon.“You keep talking about 'falls'. What do you mean by 'falls?'” They were referring to the ubiquitous reporting systems, policies and posters centred around that classically hip-breaking event that often spells the beginning of the end for an elderly person. In their hospitals, they told us, 'falls' aren’t a thing, and certainly aren’t a whole category of catastrophe. We were shocked. In Western medicine we have built entire industries, specialties, even a lingo around falls. Mechanical fall, unwitnessed fall, fall-with-headstrike, and the sadly evocative “fall with long lie”. What kind of uncultivated backwater doesn’t have falls? It’s harder to fall when family members attend the hospital with the patient and are welcomed and expected by the staff to nurse them. It’s harder to fall when you aren’t alone in the room. Confused aged care residents can fall “wandering” from their spartan single rooms into the corridor where all the talking and laughing is happening. If the talking and laughing is happening where you are, you don’t wander. If you’re cared for in the centre of the action, there is always someone standing by you. The commission's report, titled Neglect, contains horrors which have triggered some performative political funding promises. Excellent – funding is embarrassingly short. But as the report states, our aged care system “is designed around transactions, not relationships or care”. Change must go deeper than more staff training or funding, and the motivation to achieve this change won’t come from incentivising the regulators. We must look at how we value our elders, or don’t. Our society and government measures wellbeing in personal and national economic growth. The most scornful epithet used to imply a person’s irrelevance is "old". This irrelevance is reflected in our urban design – we build nursing homes in industrial estates and remote suburbia. It's reflected in how we value the caring professions – aged care workers are paid less than fast-food workers. Everyone is outraged that "chemical restraint” is used to stop people falling (and doesn’t work), but few of us have time to provide regular companionship for someone with demanding dementia. What could we expect to read in that report? We have compartmentalised our elderly. This compartmentalisation causes physical and psychological suffering to a species that evolved to live in a multigenerational pack. It also means that we rely on an artificial and expensive “sector” to relieve that suffering instead of using the organic system already conveniently in existence, that of human society. There are many reasons why most of us can’t care for our ageing parents at home. That doesn’t mean the alternative is boxing them away in buildings whose design often candidly reflects the value placed on the people inside. What if we valued our elderly enough to care for them in the centre of social interaction, novelty, commerce and usefulness? Aged care homes should be routinely located in central hubs, pleasantly, easily and habitually visited, an integrated part of our communal life. What if transplanting a popular cafe into the spacious and empty courtyard of a nursing home was a good business decision? Could primary schools and aged care facilities share the same grounds? We need more funding, better training, and more accountability, but we also need to look at ourselves. Our vulnerable would be less likely to fall if our society considered it a privilege to stand beside them. www.smh.com.au/national/standing-beside-our-frail-elderly-in-the-centre-of-life-20191105-p537lw.htmlm.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2507986189471400&id=1415019052101458
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2019 8:14:50 GMT 7
The government spends inordinate amounts of money on inquiries, reports, RC's etc., but to what end? They receive recommendations; which are rarely acted upon, bearing in mind the aforementioned actions are generally widely known about and understood within the broader community....yet observers from an un-named low income country can see what's happening in the rich country, as plain as the noses on their faces.
I've made reference in another place to greed! Cheers bear
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Post by rainyday on Nov 8, 2019 9:55:34 GMT 7
The government spends inordinate amounts of money on inquiries, reports, RC's etc., but to what end? They receive recommendations; which are rarely acted upon, bearing in mind the aforementioned actions are generally widely known about and understood within the broader community....yet observers from an un-named low income country can see what's happening in the rich country, as plain as the noses on their faces. I've made reference in another place to greed! Cheers bear They have to justify their own jobs and keep their job! They don't want to end up on newstart! It isn't about acting, it is about pushing paper, and when they get bored they create new forms that are not clearly written, just to confuse the service user/clients and everyone in between.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2019 10:03:50 GMT 7
The government spends inordinate amounts of money on inquiries, reports, RC's etc., but to what end? They receive recommendations; which are rarely acted upon, bearing in mind the aforementioned actions are generally widely known about and understood within the broader community....yet observers from an un-named low income country can see what's happening in the rich country, as plain as the noses on their faces. I've made reference in another place to greed! Cheers bear They have to justify their own jobs and keep their job! They don't want to end up on newstart! It isn't about acting, it is about pushing paper, and when they get bored they create new forms that are not clearly written, just to confuse the service user/clients and everyone in between. A most accurate analogy rainyday ....though as another member recently pointed out; it's all the doing of the public service, and what the pollies actually do for their money is something of a mystery, as well as not having one coherent brain to rub together between them......bar a handful. Cheers bear
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Post by rainyday on Nov 8, 2019 14:44:42 GMT 7
The taxpayers are forking out a lot on dead wood. I was a taxpayer for over 40 years, and would like to see my money put to better use. Tired of seeing most pollies line their own pockets with the taxpayers money, and at the same time driving the poor further into poverty. Shame on this government, and the authoritarian and dictatorial nature that our PM is now exhibiting. I think the power has completely gone to his feet, because he sure isn't using his head and making rational decisions for the betterment of all peoples. He would do well to read Robert Menzies speech to the people and take note of what a "Liberal" government is suppose to stand for, and the values for its people. Whoever is giving the advise to the PM, is not in mind a Liberal!
More funding for the aged, please!
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Post by rainyday on Nov 8, 2019 15:14:39 GMT 7
Amendment...…… Whoever is giving the advise to the PM, is not in my mind a Liberal!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2019 16:04:06 GMT 7
Amendment...…… Whoever is giving the advise to the PM, is not in my mind a Liberal! I agree rainyday, the Authoritarian Patriarchal God of Pentecostalism is anything but Liberal and, to all intents and purposes that is where the PM aledgedly receives his daily advice from. Cheers bear
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Post by Denis-NFA on Nov 8, 2019 16:17:45 GMT 7
Amendment...…… Whoever is giving the advise to the PM, is not in my mind a Liberal! I agree rainyday, the Authoritarian Patriarchal God of Pentecostalism is anything but Liberal and, to all intents and purposes that is where the PM aledgedly receives his daily advice from. Cheers bear Plus a staff of about 460 in the Office of the PM I saw reported the other day. Thick as a Besser Brick
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Post by rainyday on Nov 8, 2019 18:18:45 GMT 7
Back in the mid 70's I recall an aunt who was recently widowed at age 59. She was placed on the widow's pension immediately. She was able to get local council help with gardening, and very low cost handyman service for things she needed done around the house. Those days are gone, they now leave the aging and aged to muddle through, or jump ridiculous hoops to get the basic assistance.
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Post by eight on Nov 9, 2019 8:56:55 GMT 7
Some great post here. But you got the government YOU voted for . Now you have the option,, suck it up or leave.There's a plane leaving for Asia every day.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2019 9:23:23 GMT 7
At least one eight. AirAsia alone must have about a dozen a day. Cheers bear
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Post by rainyday on Nov 9, 2019 9:24:50 GMT 7
Some great post here. But you got the government YOU voted for . Now you have the option,, suck it up or leave.There's a plane leaving for Asia every day. Our government should govern for all of us equally, not pit taxpayers against those needing some support. Telling us that taxpayers are "sick" of some of their taxes going to the unemployed, those on disability support pensions and aged pensions. I am truly shocked at the stance this government is taking on welfare reform, yet they line their own pockets and oppress those in need even further. Perhaps I will look into where I can retire with dignity and not feel like a "drain" on society. This government unfortunately is fuelling hate towards those on benefits. PM is showing hateful and divisive ways in his speeches, and that is not Christian, far from it, nor it is it the Liberal way to govern a nation. I can't leave Australia yet.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2019 9:39:24 GMT 7
Hang in there Miss Rainy...... there's been a few of us who for one reason or another had to bide our time; and no matter what the PM wants to do, he ain't gonna be stoppin' time, any time soon IMHO. Toss your options about; unfortunately we have no say in what a host country may change in regards to retiring there once we're there; but we don't have a say in what our own country's government does either so, the status quo remains in that regard. Cheers bear
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Post by rainyday on Nov 9, 2019 9:48:48 GMT 7
Hang in there Miss Rainy...... there's been a few of us who for one reason or another had to bide our time; and no matter what the PM wants to do, he ain't gonna be stoppin' time, any time soon IMHO. Toss your options about; unfortunately we have no say in what a host country may change in regards to retiring there once we're there; but we don't have a say in what our own country's government does either so, the status quo remains in that regard. Cheers bear We have a strong economy, so why make the vulnerable suffer even further, so wrong to treat the age with so little dignity and not increase funding for them, when most have been taxpayers well before this current government were even born. It just seems like they discard the elderly and hide them away. What next? Talk of compulsory euthanasia for the over 67's that are not still in the workforce? Bear, I doubt I will leave Australia as I would miss my family.
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