Blue Card plan for aged care workers as elder abuse cases spike

AGED-CARE workers are facing tough new Blue Card checks after thousands of elderly Australians were assaulted in nursing homes last year.

AGED-CARE workers are facing tough new Blue Card checks after thousands of elderly Australians were assaulted in nursing homes last year.

Queensland’s Public Guardian wants the Federal Government to bring in Blue Card controls for aged care because existing police checks fall short.

“Greater protection of residents from abuse and poor practices might be achieved if there were consistent national processes for the screening of aged-care workers,’’ Public Guardian Natalie Siegel-Brown has told a Senate inquiry into aged-care abuse.

“In Queensland, the Blue Card system assesses a person’s suitability to work with children.

“The aged-care regime would benefit from a similar mechanism to assess a person’s suitability to work in aged care.’’

Public Guardian Natalie Siegel-Brown says aged care could benefit from a Blue Card system similar to the one in force for child care. Picture: Jack Tran

Federal Health Department records show it received 2853 reports of assault against nursing home residents in 2016/17, including 2463 cases of alleged use of unreasonable force, and 348 cases of alleged sexual contact, all reported to police.

Nursing homes are not required to report assaults against residents by fellow residents with a “mental impairment’’.

The Australian Law Reform Commission is also pushing for Blue Card-style searches, which are more comprehensive than police checks because they reveal not just criminal convictions but police charges, workplace disciplinary proceedings and old “spent’’ convictions.

Federal Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt yesterday said he would consider Blue Cards for aged care.

“If there was agreement to implement a national Blue Card scheme that covers a broad range of industries and extends beyond children and youth, we would consider the applicability of such a scheme for aged care,” he said.

Aged-care workers must pass a national police check every three years but are barred from employment only if they have a conviction for murder or sexual assault, or have been jailed for assault.

Technically, nursing homes can still hire staff with a criminal record for kidnapping, drug use, fraud or theft. Even criminals with a record of assault may be hired, as long as they weren’t sent to jail.

And the federal Health Department has warned aged-care workers that “if a person feels they have been discriminated against based on their criminal record ... they may make a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission’’.

A male nurse with a stalking conviction was paid $2000 in compensation after an aged-care home withdrew its job offer after discovering his criminal record in 2014.

The nursing home paid compensation and apologised to the nurse after he complained to the commission that he had suffered discrimination based on his criminal record.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed yesterday that a Down syndrome woman had to be rescued from a Queensland nursing home, where she was tied screaming to a chair for 12 hours a day.

The State Government’s Office of the Public Advocate warned of “institutionalised elder abuse’’ in aged-care homes, where residents are sometimes tied up, locked away or sedated.