Aged care residents are being ‘illegally detained’ in aged care homes, without Covid cases

Relatives of aged care residents have been banned from eating certain foods, while others are being locked up even if they don’t have Covid.

Aged care residents are being “illegally detained” in homes, with some relatives claiming family members are being locked up – even when there is no Covid at the facilities.

Lynette Jacka, 72, is one of a growing number of voices speaking out against businesses being able to determine someone’s freedom.

She believes her mother Norma Horne, 94, lost her rights as a citizen the moment she walked through the doors of her agedcare home on NSW’s Mid North coast.

Lynette Jacka, 72, of Kempsey with her mother Norma Horne, 94, whose mental and physical health has been severely impacted after two years of lockdowns, pictured this week at a aged care home on NSW's Mid North Coast. Picture: Supplied

“Each nursing home is an individual business and they can run it anyway they want,” Ms Jacka said.

“But how many businesses have the say over someone’s life?

“We need to address the weak laws protecting the nursing home residents so that they cannot be incarcerated without having committed a crime.”

Ms Jacka said during the pandemic her mother was “incarcerated without ever committing a crime”, with her physical and mental health suffering.

Then just before Christmas the home was locked down again when there was no health order from the state government or any Covid cases.

Lynette Jacka, 72, of Kempsey, on NSW's mid north coast, believes aged care homes should not have the right to impose lockdowns on residents at their own discretion. Picture: Supplied

Two weeks later as they were about to re-open, the home got its first Omicron case and so the lockdown rolled on.

Barrister Fiona McKenzie, based in Melbourne, said the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) was refusing to address this “systemic issue”.

“There’s nothing in the aged care act or contract that gives facilities the power to do this at will,” she said.

She cited an incident of her own involving her mother, who has since died, where staff refused to give her a soft boiled egg for breakfast due to the ‘risks’. Instead she was offered a cold, hard-boiled one. Ms McKenzie fought to have that rule changed.

“I had to sign a waiver so my mother could have a soft boiled egg or a piece of salami,” Ms McKenzie said.

“These providers have taken on the role of a parent of a child and there’s no legal base to it.”

She said the more sinister side of the argument was whether shutting down facilities to visitors when there was a severe shortage of staff was “an easy way to hide neglect and abuse”.

Ms Jacka argues that with the industry’s staffing crisis, it was essential to the wellbeing of residents that carers be allowedin to help, which also eases the burden for the workers.

She said her mother’s poor eyesight means she needs her food cut up, but that’s not always happening. She also struggles to use the plastic cutlery.

Aged Care Matters founder and public health researcher Dr Sarah Russell said many relatives were concerned about the power aged facilities have over the lives of residents.

“Some of these carers help feed and wash their relatives,” she said. “They are vaxxed, prepared to wear PPE and take an antigentest. They’re being told no. There’s a lot of anger.”

Paul Sadler, CEO of Aged & Community Service Australia (ACSA) representing some of the not for profit, church and charitableproviders, said the Federal Government needed to “set a national policy, based on public health expert advice, that balancesall the Covid risks against the critical need for social and personal support from family and friends”.

A spokesman for the ACQSC said access to residential aged care services in a public health emergency is governed by stateand territory subordinate legislation and that providers must comply with it but at the same time “continue to respect the rights of residents”.

Originally published as Aged care residents are being ‘illegally detained’ in aged care homes, without Covid cases