Report finds entrenched ageist attitudes adding to pain in aged care
The system designed to keep older Australians safe is failing, with entrenched ageist attitudes adding to issues within the sector, a new report has found.
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The rights of older Australians are being ignored and the system designed to keep them safe is failing them, according to a new report.
The Grattan Institute research found entrenched ageist attitudes were adding to issues within the sector, rife with staffing and regulation issues amplified during the pandemic.
The report argues the sector needs to be overhauled to put the rights of our most vulnerable front and centre, including thousands more home care places to be delivered rapidly.
“We actually have to recognise that older people have a right to home care just as we’ve got a right to medical care,” Grattan Institute health program director Stephen Duckett told the Herald Sun.
“Older Australians are often seen as a burden and no longer valuable or contributing members of society.
“They are pushed out of sight and out of mind. The result is the shameful mess we have today: a top-down, provider-centricaged-care system that is underfunded, poorly regulated, and failing older Australians.”
Carers Australia has called for the government to ensure no older Australians who have been approved for home-care packages wait more than 30 days to receive assistance.
The federal government has been under increasing pressure over its handling of the crisis in aged-care facilities, where more than 640 Victorians have so far died.
The royal commission last week found the government had no plan to deal with the virus in aged-care facilities and staff members had been left “traumatised”.
Federal government data obtained by the Herald Sun revealed at least 78 of the 117 aged-care providers with confirmed cases at the start of August reported feeling prepared to the regulator as part of a self-assessment earlier in the pandemic.
Just one aged-care provider admitted they needed to improve their practices in the phone survey relied on by the aged-care watchdog to judge readiness.
Opposition ageing spokeswoman Julie Collins said relying on a survey to ensure preparedness was “not good enough” and called on the government to boost the regulator’s power.
“It is clear the aged-care regulator doesn’t have the powers and resources it needs to ensure older Australians are receiving high quality aged care,” Ms Collins said.
The Aged Care and Safety Commission visited just 13 of the 117 homes between March and August to check facilities as a result of the phone survey.
Originally published as Report finds entrenched ageist attitudes adding to pain in aged care