Australia’s aged care system is “totally inequitable” because the wealthy do not make a larger contribution to the costs of the services they use as they age, the royal commission has heard. The former Chair of the Aged Care Financing Authority, Mike Callaghan, told the commissioners most Australians “don't spend the money they have in retirement”. “People with assets they have going into retirement, when they die they haven't dipped into them. And there's very large growth in inheritances.”...

  After contracting coronavirus in his aged care home, 100 year old Roy has just been discharged from St Vincent's Private Hospital in Melbourne after beating the virus.  “After 6 long weeks in hospital, 100 year old COVID-19 survivor Roy is heading back home to his aged care facility. Roy said an emotional farewell to our team as he left, thankful to be fully recovered,” the hospital wrote on their Facebook page.  “This certainly calls for a...

  The appeal of self-management in the Home Care Packages Program is understandable. Older people have been looking after themselves and others for a long time, and most want to remain in the driver’s seat.  Self-managed Home Care Package providers advertise that they offer more choice, more control, more hours and more freedom - all for a fixed cost of 13% of the budget. But is self-management all it’s cracked up to be? The basics: What is self-management? While...

In 1988, Massachusetts man Brad Hathaway was diagnosed with diabetes, heart problems and other health issues.  His doctor suggested that he start walking immediately, and regularly if he wanted to improve his health.  “My doctor said, ‘You better walk. You better start walking tomorrow and start walking three miles a day’,” Brad said. “So, I did, and I mapped out the entire town.” Thirty-two years later, Brad has walked three miles every day, sometimes getting to...

  When we think of fashion for grandmas and older people, we may think of comfy cardis, house slippers, and sensible trousers. While there’s nothing wrong with that, these stylish ladies have taken a different approach and are rewriting the fashion rules for older people. Covering the whole rainbow of colours, every kind of texture, and always expertly accessorised, these ladies sure know how to grow old stylishly. Jean & Valerie @idiosyncraticfashionistas Jean and Valerie describe themselves as “NYC style...

  The appeal of self-management in the Home Care Packages Program is understandable. Older people have been looking after themselves and others for a long time, and most want to remain in the driver’s seat.  Self-managed Home Care Package providers advertise that they offer more choice, more control, more hours and more freedom - all for a fixed cost of 13% of the budget. But is self-management all it’s cracked up to be? The basics: What is self-management? While...

Learning how to use an iPad for the first time would be difficult for anyone, let alone when you’re 84 years old, and living with Alzheimer’s Disease. But that’s what Antoinetta Tenace has done, and her daughter Anna says she has never been happier. Anna has been caring for her mum for two years in the family home, which has its challenges, especially now, during Stage 4 lockdown. “We’re accustomed to it (lockdown) now; it’s become the norm. But before...

Mark Macy is the 58 year old competitor who has battled against the odds alongside his son in the World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji. Hosted by Bear Grylls, the race sees 66 teams fight their way through remote backcountry terrain, 24 hours a day, with only a map and compass to guide them.  Mark Macy competed in the first ever Eco-Challenge, back in 1995 with his original team Stray Dogs. At the time they were all in their late forties...

During this year’s European summer, a cohort of engineering students from around the world participated in TEDI’s Summer School 2020. Their project? Developing new solutions to make Canada Water, an area of south-east London, a dementia friendly community. What is TEDI? TEDI, based in London, is an innovative new program of engineering higher education. Its motto is ‘transforming engineering education: transforming lives’ and nowhere is that better encapsulated than in their 2020 Summer School program, focusing on dementia friendly community...

Australians are right to be ashamed of our nation’s aged-care crisis. We owe our elders so much better. They are repositories of wisdom, vocational knowledge and tradition. They reared us, cared for us, built our workplaces and economy, defended our nation in war, and made us into the people we are. Yet the ongoing royal commission into aged care has revealed that not only was the sector completely unprepared for COVID-19, but it also is still not prepared for renewed...

  An aged care provider on the NSW Central Coast will dip into its own coffers to ensure all direct and non-direct care staff benefit from the government’s aged care retention bonus. Two months after writing to the Minister for Aged Care about the unfairness of the Retention Bonus for Aged Care Workers, the Board of Peninsula Villages has unanimously agreed to pass on the retention bonus payment to all staff, rather than only those who fall under the niche...

There is simply not enough staff to carry out all the daily duties in residential aged care facilities. Not having the necessary number of workers to care for the elderly means essential care is missed. I will start by describing a morning in a RACF that I don’t believe has ever been documented in any detail. Just as an example: The first thing (all) people want to do when they wake up in the morning is go to the toilet. But there...