Jane’s aged care battle continues

MORE than 375,000 people have sent a strong message to the federal government to legislate adequate skilled care for aged care residents under its watch, with the campaign driven by Korumburra’s Jane Seaholme.

Her advocacy for aged care residents was sparked over a decade ago by concerns for her mother’s welfare, and Ms Seaholme continues to strive for improvements in the sector.

Her long-running petition calls for skilled-aged-care-staff-to-resident ratios to be introduced in aged care facilities overseen by the federal government.
Glaring inadequacies in care were highlighted in the findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

Its report argued: “Aged care has often been treated by the Australian government as a lower order priority. All too often, and despite best intentions, aged care workers simply do not have the requisite time, knowledge, skill and support to deliver high quality care.”

Ms Seaholme agrees most aged care staff are doing their best to care for residents but argues that without mandated ratios of skilled staff to residents, it is in many instances impossible to provide adequate care.

While Commissioners heard of instances of intentional abuse within the aged care sector, many of their findings related to sub-standard care, with food quality a major area of concern.

“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,” the report stated.

“A lack of assistance to eat and drink, leading to malnutrition and dehydration, was a common issue raised by witnesses and in submissions.”
Concerns about substandard food provided to her mother in aged care sparked Ms Seaholme’s quest for change, and she refuses to give up despite a lack of federal government action.

“I have the longest running active petition on change.org, which is a disgrace,” she said, adding that it’s been going for almost 10 years.

As well as her petition, Ms Seaholme directed her proposal for legislated staff ratios to the Aged Care Royal Commission through one of its community forums, also sharing her mother’s story.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation continues to call for mandated ratios to ensure adequate levels of skilled staff in private health care facilities, which are overseen by the federal government.

Legislated ratios apply in Victoria’s state-run aged care facilities.

They are required to have one nurse to seven residents, plus a nurse in charge, in the morning, one nurse to eight residents, plus a nurse in charge, in the evening, and at least one nurse per 15 residents overnight.

Without similar requirements in the private aged care sector, it is left to the discretion of operators to determine skilled and overall staffing levels, with the risk that in some cases maximising profit will be the deciding factor.