Australians have a “very negative” view of life in residential aged care, according to two new research papers prepared by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. The community believes residents living in residential aged care are “often lonely”, do not have control over their lives, and are unhappy, the papers say. Many also told researchers staff were “overstretched, underpaid and frequently insufficiently trained”.  Others said the food was poor quality. “Many people were adamant that...

  Tasmania’s much anticipated Korongee dementia village will open its doors next week, with the first six residents moving in gradually over the coming months. Lucy O’Flaherty, the chief executive of Glenview, which operates Korongee, told HelloCare the furniture is in the new buildings, the gardens are having their final touches made, they’re just waiting for the coffee machine to be plumbed. “We are on schedule for a fabulous official opening on Tuesday,” she said when we chatted this week...

Ageing and death can be difficult issues. Most of us prefer to distract ourselves from these fundamental realities. As a result, however, our political discussion on aged care has been characterised by gingerness, euphemism and indecision. We have failed to grapple practically with a concrete political problem. Since 2002 the government has released four intergenerational. Another is due this year. All have identified our ageing population as a core national challenge. None has triggered meaningful reform to address it. But...

For many years we have been distant grandparents to four of our six young grandchildren. Distant geographically, that is, as we love all of them to bits and happily it’s mutual. So we have always made a big effort to make sure that we get to be with our more remote ones as much as possible, with the aspiration being monthly visits in one direction or the other, with each pair (and their lovely parents too, of course). And in...

  David Beard says there’s no discrimination at the nursing home where he is a resident. “Everyone’s accepted” and are made to feel they belong at Uniting The Marion, in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt, Mr Beard told HelloCare. Mr Beard, who is 93, speaks with humour and animation. “Everyone thinks I’m pommy, but I’m not,” he said. “I’m a true Aussie. I was born in New South Wales in 1923.” Mr Beard, who describes himself as “the...

  The coroner has recommended the Tasmanian ambulance service rewrite its policies around refusal of treatment after a 75-year-old woman twice refused to be taken to hospital and two days later died. Tasmania’s ambulance services visited Feryne Hunter twice in the two days before her death, but both times she refused to be taken to hospital. But the coroner found that Ambulance Tasmania was not at fault.  “I cannot speculate why Ms Hunter did not wish to accept medical treatment...

New research shows that menopause has the potential to raise a woman’s risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, due to loss of estrogen.  Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, predominantly affects people 65 and older. Although well-known, the condition has remained a mystery, the primary cause or causes are mostly unknown.  New findings, published in the journal of Neurology, are poignant and progressive. Alzheimer’s; the disease that was long considered as an inevitable result of ageing and genetics...

Aged care workers are, from time to time, the target of aggression from the residents they care for at work. Sometimes it is from residents who are living with dementia, who may find themselves unable to communicate their needs and lash out. We often hear from our readers who work in aged care that these incidents are simply ‘part of the job’. Aged care workers have reported residents push them, bite them, or run their walkers into them, causing fear, distress and physical injury...

A judge has shown mercy to an elderly man who has avoided a jail after attempting to kill his wife and himself “for love”. Joseph Sugar, 88, injected himself and his wife of 50 years, Heather, with insulin two days before they were due to move into separate buildings in the same residential aged care facility. Mrs Sugar was diagnosed with dementia in  2014, and was no longer able to care for herself or recognise her family or carers. Judge...

Each of these ‘little boxes’ in the locked down Melbourne towers holds a story. Someone who matters. We are listening and we care. The past two days I have had the privilege of being one of a team of nurses from Knox Private Hospital providing COVID swabbing for the residents of the towers. This pandemic brings out the best in some and the worst in others. These past two days I’ve been lucky to see countless examples of the BEST! Day...

  The coroner has recommended the Tasmanian ambulance service rewrite its policies around refusal of treatment after a 75-year-old woman twice refused to be taken to hospital and two days later died. Tasmania’s ambulance services visited Feryne Hunter twice in the two days before her death, but both times she refused to be taken to hospital. But the coroner found that Ambulance Tasmania was not at fault.  “I cannot speculate why Ms Hunter did not wish to accept medical treatment...

  An assistant nurse has had an assault charge against her dismissed, after the magistrate said he believed the accused was genuinely trying to help the resident. Chancal Arokianathan had been working as a carer for 30 years, and up until the incident had an “unblemished record”, according to a report by the ABC. Just before Christmas last year, Ms Arokianathan was helping a 73-year-old resident shower at a nursing home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. While showering her, Ms Arokianathan...