Surveys conducted over the past two years show older people generally have a positive view of their experience in residential care – despite what the media headlines and the Royal Commission into Aged Care may say – according to a new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The independent report is based on interviews with over 31,000 aged care residents – 65 per cent women – held in 2017-18 and 2018-19 and sourced from interviews conducted with residents at over 2,000 facilities by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) – so a broad cross-section of the resident population.
98 per cent of residents said they felt safe ‘all the time’ or ‘most of the time’.
The questions on whether staff treats respondents with respect and met their health care needs were met with similarly positive responses.
Even the questions that drew the least positive responses – having staff to explain things and liking the food – still achieved scores of 80 per cent and 85 per cent respectively.
Of course, ideally these scores would be 100 per cent and clearly there is room for improvement.
Food is an issue that has been singled out by the Royal Commission as well as the need to have adequate numbers of well-trained staff.
However, the research shows the story that we don’t often see on the TV or read in the papers: the thousands of older Australians who are receiving good care every day from hard-working staff who are doing their best in an industry that is under increasing pressure from families, the Government and the wider community.
There is more work to do around these findings.
The report also found those people with limited mobility and higher care needs were less positive about their independence.
People from non-English speaking backgrounds were also less likely to give positive responses.
Again, these are issues that are being explored by the Commissioners – and highlight the need to provide ‘quality of life’ and ‘joy’, to quote Commissioner Lynelle Briggs, to people in the last years of their lives.
The Royal Commission is currently consulting on a new model for aged care designed to offer people more time living at home with support services, access to rehabilitation and specialist care in residential care, better social supports and a more home-like environment.
While this model will take one to three years to implement, change is on the way – and that can only be a good thing.
Discussion2 Comments
Really? they are happy?
Ask the workers in the nursing homes if they would put their loved ones in a nursing home.
I did. I asked all the workers in 5 different nursing homes. NOT ONE OF THE WORKERS SAID THEY WOULD PUT THEIR LOVED ONES IN A NURSING HOME. NOT ONE.
Ask the workers in the nursing homes if they would eat nursing home food. Offer them the plate of food from a loved one in the nursing home.
I did. I offered the workers in the 5 different nursing homes the plates of food they provided for my loved one. NOT ONE OF THEM SAID THEY WOULD EAT NURSING HOME FOOD. NOT ONE.
Which is why I visit my loved one in the nursing home daily and I bring their food, shower them, brush their teeth, change them ready for bed. I will do this until I am able to remove them from the nursing home.
About time, an honest reflection of life in residential care. The Royal Commission maligning the whole industry for the sins of the few is a disgrace and to label their interim report “neglect” is prejudicial to the facts.
If anyone should be labelled with NEGLECT then we should be looking at the federal liberal Government. They are hiding behind the Royal Commission to avoid the serious question of underfunding. Strangely the Royal Commission is supposed to be looking at Quality and Safety and not funding.
The liberals have been attacking residential care for ten years, wripped billions out of the system, tampered with and destroyed how we claim and now they say the system is “broken and not fit for purpose”.
It was perfectly fine before they attacked it and to add insult to injury they lie to the people about it proving that the surplus is more important than the aged care system.