news feature
Who cares
WHEN IS A HOME NOT A HOME: THAT IS THE QUESTION
THE latest expose on abuse of the
aged and the short-staffing at nursing
homes around Australia as aired on the
Four Corners program of the ABC-TV
was the final straw which prompted
the newly elected Prime Minster of
Australia, Scott Morrison, to call a
Royal Commission on aged care.
Four Corners showed graphic video
images of shocking treatment of frail
and elderly nursing home residents by
staff.
In one scene, a resident was slapped
several times in the face with a bag.
Several relatives of several Filipino
residents in nursing homes have
witnessed abuse and neglect of their
loved ones in nursing homes.
“They’re supposed to be ‘homes’
where frail and elderly people pay with
most of their pension for care in their
final years of life,” one relative said.
“Instead, living in some nursing homes
has become like living in a prison
cell, with the addition of demeaning
treatment.
“But more frustrating is that reports of
abuse and complaints have somehow
been brushed aside by those with
authority to act.”
They have described scenarios
include unexplained bruising
in residents’ torsos, leaving
residents unattended for long
periods in the shower or in
the toilet, tying residents to
a chair the whole day, and
verbally abusing residents.
In one instance, a resident
went missing for almost a
whole day and was only found by a
pedestrian blocks away and taken back
to the nursing home.
Many other similar press reports
on the subject about a lack of will by
government to stem the tide of abuse
reports and to act on complaints about
the aged care industry had fallen on
deaf ears over the years
Until now.
The Four Corners report series and
the election of a new Prime Minster
converged perfectly to highlight
Australia’s aged care problem and to
put the issue into its proper perspective.
For the Filipino community, this would
be a wake-up call for the growing
ABOVE is a newspaper clipping from the Daily Telegraph in Sydney showing a
scene taken with a video camera in a nursing home with an elderly resident being
attended by the home's nursing carer.
Royal Commission has been a
long time coming, say relatives
www.kalatas.com.au
number of its elderly moving into
nursing homes.
The same goes for Filipino community
nurses working in nursing homes, and
for Filipino entrepreneurs going into the
nursing home business.
Dr Jessica Borbase, a research
associate at the Centre for Independent
Studies, wrote n the Daily Telegraph
recently that by 2021, four million
Australian will be aged 65 years and
older. Among them will presumably be
many Filipino-Australians.
“By the time they are 85 years of
age, 62 percent of women and almost
50 percent of men will need residential
aged care,” Dr Borbase says.
In general, there has never been a
better time to grow old.
“ Good health for the majority of the
ageing population is a testament to the
advances of modern medicine.
“But, as frailty increases, as the
capacity to live independently wanes
and as dependence on others for
basic tasks grows, elderly Australians
are treated with a mixture of
embarrassment and paternalism.
Australians are hoping that the Royal
Commission on aged care will see many
major changes to the way the frail and
elderly resident are cared for in nursing
homes.
AK NewsMagazine, Vol 9 No 1 | OCTOBER 2018
03