CCTV to prevent abuse at nursing homes will be trialled in five homes

Five aged care facilities in SA have been chosen for a trial of CCTV monitoring to prevent abuse.

• CCTV to be trialled
• Aged Care Royal Commission releases scathing interim report
• How to get the most from your Advertiser digital subscription

CCTV will be trialled in five South Australian aged care homes “from early next year” in an effort to improve protection of residents.

Cameras will be installed at Northgate House, Mount Pleasant Aged Care, Waikerie Health Services, Bordertown Memorial Hospital and Port Pirie Regional Health Service.

But a new public tender will be needed for a technology partner after it was agreed not to proceed with the original provider, Care Protect.

The trial was set up in the wake of the Oakden scandal and also after Adelaide woman Noleen Hausler secretly installed a tiny video camera in her elderly father’s Mitcham aged-care home that revealed a carer bashing him.

The Federal Government will invest $500,000 in the trial, which will require consent from residents who can also leave it at any time.

The trial of CCTV in aged care homes will require the consent of the elderly residents, who can later opt out of it.

Health and Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wade said protection of the vulnerable elderly was a high priority.

“The CCTV pilot aims to assess the acceptability of audiovisual monitoring among residents and their families, and determine whether the technology can cost-effectively be used to provide higher levels of safety, improve care and reduce adverse events,” he said.

The trial is months behind schedule and Oakden whistleblower Stewart Johnston sensationally quit a committee overseeing it, condemning public sector inefficiency and likening meetings to a cross between TV parodies Utopia and Yes Minister, where nothing was achieved.

Office for Ageing Well director Cassie Masson said bedroom cameras would be disabled if the resident objected.