Getting Older
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Caroline Egan
Caroline Egan Feb 14, 2019

Pet support, manicures and massages: Surprising home care services you may not know about
Many older Australian wish to remain living at home for as long as they can. For many, it’s important they remain in their local communities, where they have friends and family nearby, they know their neighbours, and are familiar with the nearby facilities. The familiarity of home can also be reassuring to older people. The feeling of being immersed in a home they’ve created, a reflection of their life journey and rich with memories, can also be hugely comforting. With...
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Charli Maree Darragh

My Mother Was Murdered In An Aged Care Facility
My name is Charli Maree Darragh and I am the daughter of a victim of the current aged care system. My mother Marie Terese Darragh was murdered in her sleep by a nurse at the St Andrews Nursing Village in Ballina NSW back in 2014, and I am not ashamed to admit that I’m not ‘over it,’ because I probably never will be. My mother’s killer was a woman by the name of Megan Haines who started her career...
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Matiu Bush
Matiu Bush Feb 7, 2019

Conversation-as-Therapy pin monitors social interactions
The Australian population is getting older, living longer – and for some, getting lonelier. It’s predicted that households of one will rise from 2.1 million in 2011 to a staggering 3.4 million in 2036. Care services are seeing an increased demand for aged care that works with older people, supporting them to keep independent and socially connected in their own homes. Lonely and socially isolated older Australians are a widely distributed, often secluded population. As a group, it’s...
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lauren-todorovic_3

Meet Lauren, Our Founder

I’m so glad you made it to HelloCare our digital magazine. We bring you the very best information around the world from Aged Care industry experts and providing a voice for the elderly community. We publish topics that we believe our audience want to read such as tips to staying healthy, support for caregivers & professionals, dementia and overall wellbeing. If you want to see more of something then please email me, as I’m here to make HelloCare exactly what you want to read about. lauren_sign
Getting Older
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Anne Ring
Anne Ring Feb 20, 2019

Driving into old age
As a 76-year-old, I’ve just received my second NSW Fitness to Drive Medical Assessment form, to be filled by my GP, and which has needed to be completed annually since I turned 75. It is very, very comprehensive, covering a multitude of physical and mental health criteria. And it got me thinking about all the controversy around older drivers, with the debate being between whether we are safer or more dangerous on the roads. So, I’ve been doing some research...
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Jakob Neeland
Jakob Neeland Feb 14, 2019

Mind Your Manners – A Refresher Course For Millennials In Respecting The Elderly
A photo showing an elderly woman standing hunched over on a Sydney train while three young commuters sit down in front of her has been causing quite a stir on the internet lately. The picture, shows an obviously frail and physically limited older woman standing and clutching on to a pole to maintain her balance on a crowded Sydney train, while four young individuals sit comfortably, either ignoring her or too engrossed with their mobile phones to care. The photo...
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Professor Joseph Ibrahim

Physical restraint doesn’t protect patients – there are better alternatives
It’s an uncomfortable image to consider: an elderly person – perhaps somebody you know – physically restrained. Maybe an aged care resident deemed likely to fall has been bound to his chair using wrist restraints; or someone with dementia acting aggressively has been confined to her bed by straps and rails. These scenarios remain a reality in Australia. Despite joining the global trend to promote a “restraint free” model, Australia is one of several high income countries continuing to employ...
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Caroline Egan
Caroline Egan Feb 22, 2019

Two-hourly repositioning to prevent bedsores is “abuse”, study says

   New research from the University of New South Wales has raised questions about the correct way to care for those requiring pressure area care. The common practice of repositioning every two hours those at risk of developing bedsores may be interrupting their natural sleep rhythms, causing them to become more agitated and distressed, according to the new study. The practice of repositioning also fails to prevent bedsores from developing, the researchers say. The fact that the practice continues is a form...

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Alzheimer's & dementia
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Ngaire Hobbins
Ngaire Hobbins Feb 21, 2019

People may eat poorly in dementia, but what if they are hungry?
I don’t know about you, but if I found myself in a situation where I was sitting with a plate of food in front of me, feeling those all too familiar pangs of hunger, but was unable to decipher the complexities of just how to banish that hunger by manoeuvring the contents of the plate before me into my stomach... I might just grumble at whoever was nearby, I might get up and walk away, I might even lash out...
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Jakob Neeland
Jakob Neeland Feb 21, 2019

Designing Your Home To Support Dementia
The word ‘home’ often conjures images of a house filled with loved ones, but in reality, home is actually a feeling that comes with being in a place where you are truly comfortable and able to be yourself. Sometimes though, finding comfort can be difficult. As a person ages, their overall health and quality of life hinge on a variety of different factors, but being able to remain living at home as opposed to an aged care facility has proven...
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Caroline Egan
Caroline Egan Feb 20, 2019

Most aged care workers don’t receive dementia training
  Australia is not prepared for the huge anticipated increase in the number of people living with dementia, and “radical solutions” and “specialised education and training” will be essential for the nation to cope, experts say. When Maree McCabe opened her hearing at the Aged Care Royal Commission, she revealed some sobering statistics about the growing prevalence of dementia in Australia. “At the moment, there are 436,000 Australians living with dementia. By 2056, there will be 1.1 million...
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Health care professionals
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Caroline Egan
Caroline Egan Feb 22, 2019

Assaults, loopholes, and bad smells: This week at the Royal Commission
The main points to come out of the Aged Care Royal Commission this week: There were more than 3,700 assaults in Australian nursing homes in 2017-18. Some aged care providers are manipulating the government funding scheme. The aged care sector will need to triple its workforce by 2050. A South Australian man has been waiting 450 days for a home care package. Older Australians are considered "out of sight, out of mind". Aged care staff are overworked, underpaid, and...
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Jakob Neeland
Jakob Neeland Feb 22, 2019

Aged Care Attacker Leaves Jail Early After Being Declared “A Victim Of The System.”
Sydney nursing home worker Prakash Paudyal who was caught on a hidden camera assaulting an 82-year old dementia patient has won an appeal against his 4 month prison sentence and will now be released. The assaults that were caught on hidden camera occurred between August 26 and September 3 at the Bupa Seaforth facility and depicted the 36-year-old nursing home worker roughly pulling an 82-year-old man with dementia by his shirt and assaulting him with a shoe. It was also...
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Jakob Neeland
Jakob Neeland Feb 20, 2019

Unannounced Spot-Checks, That Are Not So Unannounced
  Well over a year ago, Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt signaled the Government's intention to introduce unannounced audits and spot-checks in Australian nursing homes as a means to ensure that high standards of care were being met. For those of us with loved ones being cared for in aged care facilities, this news was a relief, and many hoped that having unannounced visits would provide the insight and transparency needed to give an accurate assessment of the quality of...
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Ngaire Hobbins
Ngaire Hobbins
Charli Maree Darragh
Charli Maree Darragh
Professor Joseph Ibrahim
Professor Joseph Ibrahim
Anna Millicer
Anna Millicer
Stewart Johnston
Stewart Johnston
Cassie Zlonzak
Cassie Zlonzak
Phil Harper
Phil Harper
Marcus Riley
Marcus Riley
Nicole Dunn
Nicole Dunn
Yasin Rofcanin
Yasin Rofcanin
Lila Dr Landowski
Lila Dr Landowski
Richard Hoskins
Richard Hoskins
Operations Manager, Fresh Hope Care