The staffing crises gripping the aged care sector was this week laid bare with news that more than half of all Australian nursing homes are undermanned.
The Aged Care Royal Commission heard raising the staffing levels to an acceptable number, similar to America, of staffing would require an increase in total staff hours of 20 per cent across Australia.
It comes during National Carers Week, which is dedicated to acknowledging the invaluable contribution carers at home make to Australia.
There are over 2.7 million personal carers providing 36 million hours of care and support every week to a family member or friend, many of whom have a terminal illness or are frail.
One such example is Janice Hilton, who shared her experience at the commission on Thursday of working in home care for 10 years, as well as caring for her father.
Janice, 64, said the system is broken for carers and home care clients – and called on the government to regulate it in the same way as childcare.
She said home care coordinators were regularly left to arrange care visits for up to 200 clients at a time – many of whom had little other human contact.
“A lot of people need a bit more social support which isn’t happening. I go into people’s places and I might only be there for one hour and that’s all they see for two weeks.”
She said recent changes to the Government home care grading system have slashed already low wages.
“Care workers have lost hundreds of dollars in penalty rates and many have been forced into taking second jobs or leaving the sector altogether”.
It is clear that careers give far more of themselves than just time or what they are paid to do. We as a community want to support them.
