Long wait to receive recommended care at home

MORE than 12,000 South Australians on long lists for aged care packages may have been assessed on their future needs which has pushed out wait times, Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt says.

SOME of South Australia’s more than 12,000 older residents waiting for help at home could be forced to wait longer with the Federal Minister accusing assessors of “futureproofing” clients.

The queue for older South Australians waiting for home care packages, aimed at keeping them out of aged care facilities for as long as possible, has blown out to 12,000.

Federal Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt has not ruled out reassessing people in the queue after the Federal Health Department obtained evidence that some Aged Care Assessment Teams were “futureproofing” clients — recommending them for higher level packages than they currently need due to wait times stretching over a year.

The blowouts in wait times come as Adelaide will soon become host to a national Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety following the Oakden scandal.

Mr Wyatt says he wants to ensure the additional $1.6 billion allocated to home care in the budget goes to people with a genuine need for high priority care as quickly as possible.

“The government acknowledges that there is continued strong demand for home care packages, particularly for levels three and four,” Mr Wyatt says.

“This reflects the desire of senior Australians to remain living in their homes for as long as possible.”

South Australians are disproportionately represented on the waitlist.

The department is working with assessment teams to ensure their recommendations are “consistent and equitable”, as 12,662 South Australians remain on the list at the end of June.

Almost 11,000 of those are waiting for level three and four packages.

Mr Wyatt says about three quarters the of 121,000 people waiting for packages across Australia, are being assisted through lower level home care packages or the Commonwealth home support program.

However, people assessed for a level four package could face a wait of up to 12 months for their first package, a level two, before waiting at least another 12 months for a level four — prompting Mr Wyatt to suggest that if a client is a high need level four, it could be easier on their carer to consider putting them in residential care.

Full-time carer Lesley Bedini with her step-mother Mary, who suffers from dementia. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

In the seaside suburb of Glenelg, in Adelaide’s west retired nurse Lesley Bedini cares for her 92-year-old stepmother, Mary, who has dementia.

Mary spent almost a year in an aged care facility before being brought home because she was being “neglected”, Ms Bedini told The Advertiser.

“The dementia unit, all they did was sit around and watch Elvis Presley movies in a dark room,” she said.

Mary had an eye infection that Ms Bedini says was left untreated, and became “virtually non-verbal” and incontinent.

“I had to get her out of there … and she is so much better, it is incredible,” Ms Bedini says.

“She has some sort of sense of self which she never had in that nursing home, they take away their dignity.”

Mary is fully dependent on Ms Bedini due to her dementia, and was last October assessed for a level four package.

She has received lower level packages in the interim but Ms Bedini cannot get a straight answer as to when Mary will receive the package.

“I’m fighting tooth and nail to keep her at home,” she says.

“Why should I send my poor old thing into a nursing home where they don’t even look after her properly or they can’t look after her properly because they don’t have the client to staff ratios?”

The Royal Commission will investigate a raft of issues including how to best deliver care to the increasing number of Australians living with dementia and staffing ratios in residential care homes.

Originally published as Long wait to receive recommended care at home