Aged care leader takes stand against criticism

THE director of an independent aged care home in Mackay has slammed the recent 'negative focus' on the sector

CARING ENVIRONMENT: Resthaven Aged Care residents (front from left) Jean Callighan, Desley Helshan, Freda Younger and (at back) Mavis Parsons, facility manager and co-owner Mary Anne Edwards and diversional therapist Wendy Farley. Picture: Madura McCormack

THE director of an independent aged care home in Mackay has slammed the recent "negative focus” on the sector, saying it is unfair to paint the industry with a broad stroke brush for a few bad eggs.

Resthaven on Quarry facility manager and co-owner Mary Anne Edwards has gone in to bat for the broader aged care sector of the region after a spate of bad press, including the release of audit data by the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union, which found aged care facilities were providing nearly half the number of hours of care residents require per day.

"To apply a blanket statement that says we don't provide the correct hours per resident per day, that is not correct,” she said.

"I just think when you're talking about people's lives and their care and their safety... we are playing with a lot of people's emotions here and a lot of people are making rash statements that aren't being held accountable.

"For every bad story in aged care there are a thousand good ones... there is far more positivity that happens in aged care that doesn't get noticed.”

The QNMU audit found residents in aged care homes in the electorate of Dawson were receiving an average of 2.92 hours of care a day, far below the recommended 4.3 hours.

Ms Edwards said residents at Resthaven receive 4.22 hours of care a day on average, but it was important to remember that there are 64 levels of care for the aged.

"I'm sick of the bad stories, I really am,” she said.

"The problem is that we are an ageing society, whether people like it or not, as an economy we can't sustain the impact of the ageing population that is going to require care that is coming through.”

Projections released earlier this month by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office revealed the cost of aged care in Australia is expected to hit $40billion by the end of the next decade.

The Federal government spent $18billion on aged care in the 2017/18 financial year, or one per cent of Australia's GDP - more than the amount spent on child care ($7billion) and on the National Disability Insurance Scheme ($7billion) combined.

From 2022, aged care will become the fastest-growing area of government spending.

Ms Edwards welcomed the upcoming Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety but remains sceptical of its impact.

"We have had so many commissions into aged care in the last 10 to 15 years, and the government of the day will only ever cherry pick that which suits them or is cost neutral,” she said.

There have been more than 20 reviews, reports and inquiries into the aged care sector since 1997, to be exact.

These include the "Review of the Aged Care Funding Instrument Report” of 2017, the Productivity Commission's report "Caring for Older Australians” in 2011, the "Review of the National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes” and the "Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce”, both released last year.

The aged sector is also overseen by multiple government agencies and bodies, including the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency, the Aged Care Complaints Commission and the overarching Department of Health.

Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Ken Wyatt, in a letter to the aged care industry, said the broad focus of the Royal Commission will be to look at the quality of care provided in residential and in-home care services to senior Australians.

It will also include young Australians with disabilities living in residential aged care settings.

"The Royal Commission will help us to determine what more may need to be done to prepare the aged care system for the increase in demand over the next decade,” he said.

Ms Edwards conceded it does make a difference that her facility, like 20 per cent of residential aged care, doesn't belong to a larger provider.

"I'm passionate. I keep a very good eye over what happens here on a daily basis. If I owned multiple facilities, I couldn't,” she said.

For the 63 elderly residents of Resthaven on Quarry, the complex machinations of the aged care sector is the farthest thing from their mind.

Jean Callighan, who is blind in one eye, said the level of care at the facility was more than adequate, revealing she sometimes helped herself to seconds when she really shouldn't.

Resident Mavis Parsons said she was "the happiest I've been in a long time”.

Originally published as Aged care leader takes stand against criticism