Nursing homes must stop criminal treatment of elderly residents: Advocate

NURSING homes must stop criminal treatment of elderly residents who are illegally sedated or tied down, Queensland’s Public Advocate has warned.

NURSING homes must stop criminal treatment of elderly residents who are illegally sedated or tied down, Queensland’s Public Advocate Mary Burgess warned yesterday.

She told the federal parliamentary inquiry into aged care abuse that residents were routinely restrained to make them easier to manage.

And her office is fielding an increasing number of complaints about abuse and neglect in Queensland nursing homes.

“Facilities don’t have the staff to ensure people can eat a meal … they leave them on toilets for long periods and forget they’re there,” Ms Burgess told the inquiry hearing in Brisbane yesterday.

“Complainants say things like, ‘you can’t do this to animals, you can’t underfeed animals and get away with it’.”

Ms Burgess said the Federal Government should set rules for treating nursing home residents who needed to be restrained to protect themselves or others from harm.

She warned that the existing lack of regulation meant that aged care staff were risking criminal prosecution for assault, unlawful deprivation of liberty or administration of a stupefying substance.

“Every day, in aged care facilities across Australia, people are subjected to criminal treatment that is regarded as an ordinary part of the provision of aged care,” she said.

“And aged care staff are being exposed to the risk of criminal prosecution for doing what has somehow come to be seen as part of their job.

“The aged care providers are not really admitting it’s happening, but everyone knows it’s happening.’’

Ms Burgess said some nursing homes were punishing residents for blowing the whistle on neglect by ousting them.

“When they make a complaint the facility threatens to withdraw services,’’ she said.

“People feel they’re trapped and if they make a fuss their family member won’t get the care they need.”

Queensland’s Public Guardian, Natalie Siegel-Brown, told the inquiry that she had come across frightening cases of elder abuse in nursing homes and she feared it was the tip of the iceberg.