Aged-care homes ‘must lift their game on food’

More than half of the people in nursing homes in 2019 had a diagnosis of one of the forms of ­dementia.

More than half of the people in nursing homes in 2019 had a diagnosis of one of the forms of ­dementia, the aged-care royal commission has found, and 68 per cent of residents were ­either malnourished or at risk of malnutrition.

Food and nutrition was one of four areas singled out by the royal commission as requiring urgent attention, along with dementia care, the use of restrictive practices and palliative care.

Commissioners Tony Pagone QC and Lynelle Briggs recommended the standards of meals in aged-care facilities be reviewed and that government expenditure on residents be increased by $10 a day by July to help pay for an annual review to show how providers have met basic needs and nutrition requirements.

“Food is also important to wellbeing, providing enjoyment through taste and smell,” it said in the final report, titled Care, Dignity and Respect. “Too often we heard that residential aged-care providers failed to meet the ­nutritional needs of people for whom they care and that they provided poor quality and unappetising food.”

Under the proposal, nursing homes would also be forced to ­report the number of instances of unplanned weight loss or dehydration.

Another of the 148 recommendations, released publicly on Monday, is that workers undergo regular mandatory dementia and palliative care training.

Dementia Australia CEO Maree McCabe said the commission made it clear that a number of steps were required to make quality dementia care core business for the sector.

“We, like the almost half a million people living with dementia in Australia and the 1.6 million people involved in their care, await a comprehensive plan of ­action from government that will address the service, education and governance transformation required,” she said.

A star rating system to allow older people and their families to compare the quality and safety performance of services and providers is also being encouraged.

“It is critical that the public has access to information about the performance of individual services, in a way that is accessible and easy to understand — a system of star ratings enables this,” the commissioners wrote.

“It is an ­essential tool for differentiating between aged-care services.”