Aged care crisis: Call for residents to have same access to mental health support as everyone else

Aged care residents should have the same access to mental health support as the rest of the community, campaigners argue. A pilot study could have the answers, but only a lucky few are getting help.

Exclusive: When Ray Shephard was diagnosed with anxiety at the age of 94 it was a shock.

He’d always thought there was something wrong with him, but didn’t know what.

Now aged 96, and with the help of a counsellor who visited him in his aged care home, he has some strategies to help him cope.

They include taking part in group activities with other residents in the morning, relaxing to the sounds of Daniel O’Donnell on his iPad in the afternoon, and writing poetry.

It’s helped reduce the amount of time he feels anxious.

Ray Shephard, 96, was one of 170 people to take part in a pilot scheme. Picture: Supplied

“I still get a bit anxious in the morning,” Mr Shephard, a former farm worker, said.

“That’s when I do some deep breathing and then nine times out of 10, I feel better.”

Mr Shephard is one of the lucky few in aged care to get help.

In 2017 it was found that just one per cent of aged care residents received mental health support, because they had to pay for it privately, and even if they could afford it, many were unable to access it.

In recent years several government funding initiatives have looked to address this, allowing local health networks to trial new models.

Mr Shephard’s aged care provider Whiddon worked with local authorities in NSW and Queensland to trial pilot schemes across several homes.

He was one of 170 to take part.

For 60 per cent of participants, the results were “transformative”. Picture: Supplied

Following the sessions, the aged care provider did a survey and found that more than six in 10 benefited and for some it was “transformative”.

Whiddon’s deputy chief executive, Alyson Jarrett said that older people deserved equitable access and treatment to mental health support.

“We know that people living in aged care can experience higher levels of depression than those living in the community, and evidence shows us that unresolved issues can cause deeper problems and dramatically interfere with a person’s quality of life,” she said.

Aged Care Crisis advocate Lynda Saltarelli said people in aged care should have the same access to mental health services as people in the community.

“They’re forgotten when they go into aged care,” Ms Saltarelli. “It’s like they don’t exist anymore.”

Director of Care Services at Whiddon, in Casino, NSW, Kearra Lord, witnessed how the counselling benefited the residents.

“For the generation that has always been so stoic, they were open and receptive to counselling and their own wellbeing” Ms Lord said.

Better support has heped him take control of his mental health. Picture: Supplied

She said prior to counselling Mr Shephard’s anxiety was “part of his everyday living”.

“Ray has been able to take control of his mental health,” Ms Lord said.

Mr Shephard, who has four children, 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren, said following therapy he realised that his anxiety had been a lifelong affliction.

He remembers missing school because of it.

“I would get hot and cold and I thought I was just plain ill,” he said.

“I would wonder what was wrong with me.”

When he arrived in aged care Mr Shephard said he was an “absolute disaster”, but “today life goes on and I enjoy it.”

Originally published as Aged care crisis: Call for residents to have same access to mental health support as everyone else