Since our story last week here, the Department of Health has updated the guidance for providers for the new single Aged Care Quality Standards, which start 1 July 2019, to address the issue of the inappropriate use of chemical restraints.
“Although antipsychotic medicines may be appropriate for adults with severe mental health issues or long-term mental illness, there is concern that these medicines are being prescribed inappropriately in people aged 65 years and over for their sedative effects – that is, as a form of chemical restraint for people with psychological and behavioural symptoms of dementia or delirium,” it reads.
We think it’s a good start, but we’d also like to point the Minister for Aged Care Ken Wyatt to this letter from a registered nurse published in The Canberra Times this week.
Help needed
Every residential aged-care facility that I ever worked in was staffed by a caring, well-trained, underpaid and overworked skeleton crew.
Many more staff are needed to properly monitor residents who are a danger to themselves and others.
Minister Ken Wyatt may make regulations regarding restraints, but unless staffing is increased and workers paid more, then, for the safety of all residents and staff, both chemical and physical restraints will continue to be needed for too many people suffering dementia.
The central problem of the aged-care industry is money – not enough comes from governments, not enough of that goes to workers and too much of it goes to the profiteers.
Fix that please, Mr Wyatt.
Bob Elliston, Registered Nurse, Bruny Island, Tasmania
