ABC’s Lateline Program last night featured the appalling lack of dentistry within many of Australia’s aged-care facilities.

Who looks after the mouths and teeth of those who live in facilities for the frail and old? Hardly anyone, it seems? I can’t remember ever seeing a dentist, dental therapist or dental hygienist, in any of the homes that I regularly visit. 

The dentist on Lateline, Dr Clive Rogers, said that it was not uncommon to find several abscesses in the mouths of the residents he sees. Ouch!! Ever had an abscess on a tooth?? He goes on to tell, and show, us the massive build up of food and plaque in the mouths of the frail older people he is checking. It is not a pretty sight.

While the media covers the horrendous world news of terrorist attacks and airport closures, it is easy to see that most people will not have noticed the further lowering of aged-care standards here at home.

Victorian Uniting Aged Care has just retrenched ten division one nurses from two of their aged care facilities – joining the ranks of the private-for-profit facilities that place cost-cutting and budgets over people and quality care. 

How many of us know who actually owns the aged-care homes where our frail, older friends and relatives live? 

Often there is a web of complex structures behind the day-to-day management of the facility. It is hard to know just who is responsible.

This week ABC Lateline viewers were treated to the spectacle of the Minister for Ageing, ex-policewoman, Justine Elliot, totally not up to the task of explaining to Tony Jones, and to the rest of us, how it is has come to pass that commonwealth-funded aged-care facilities catering for remote Indigenous communities are not even expected to meet the 44 standards required by all other facilities within Australia. 

Furthermore, she was unable to explain how it is that people experiencing dementia and those who are bedridden can be left overnight unattended and unprotected - with no staff on duty at all. Of course, the inevitable occurred, with the tragic death of a resident.  

A Victorian nursing home fails 30 standards out of 44. How did it get to this? 

There are issues with hygiene, nutrition medication delivery and much more. The latest audit by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency has revealed these problems – thankfully, at last. That is what the Accreditation Agency is there to do because these are people who cannot speak for themselves. They just have to take what they get – in terms of care and respect. And clearly these residents were taking buckets and buckets of poor care and neglect – and for some considerable time.
But the thing that is so worrying about this is that it is reported that action was only taken after complaints were forwarded to the Department of Health and Ageing. Relatives of residents claim that the complaints go back to 2005 when this place opened. It is also reported that the facility has had eight directors of nursing in three years. Now you would think that that, in itself, might tell somebody something.
No wonder people are frightened of being placed by their family in a nursing home when they hear of such things.

This columnist is not surprised by what has been found, given the huge, unresolved staffing issues around aged care.

I also think that the public need to know what is going on behind some of these closed doors. But it should never be allowed to get to this stage.

It seems from the reports that some family members knew that the care provided at this facility was way below standard.

The question is … why was their voice not heard?

A common theme of much of the media comment made by our current Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, is that she makes no apology for the fact that her priority is ensuring that frail aged and vulnerable seniors are protected.   

If only she did - ensure that frail people receive proper protection - that is. Because, in spite of her repetitive, ‘no apology’ statement, current protection measures for vulnerable people in residential care are just not good enough...

We are currently witnessing another aged care disaster, but does anyone care? It is astounding that there has been so little public outcry about the failure of a Victorian aged care facility to provide for its vulnerable, frail residents. What an enormous breach of trust...

Can you believe it? It has come to light that the officials investigating the deaths of five residents in a Melbourne nursing home NEVER LEFT THE FACILITY’S OFFICE!

They checked the paperwork but didn’t talk to the recipients of the care. Even worse, it seems that one resident (who subsequently died) was CALLING OUT FOR HELP during the visit but his cries were not heard because all the action was in the office!

Surveys about ageing usually reveal that what people fear most is not death itself, but rather the loss of personal control that often comes with the ageing process. Such fears are increased when stories of abuse, neglect and gruesome body part games come to light.

The year ends on a ghastly note for aged care. Today, the Herald Sun reports on how some staff at a Victorian aged care facility thought it was fun to take pictures of the bodies of frail residents and play a ‘guess who?' game at a party at the local golf club...

The election is almost upon us and it would hard to know that there was such a thing as aged care. Frail Australians have barely had a look in – in spite of the billions of dollars being thrown about. Residents of nursing homes have missed out yet again.

The recent report on the often-neglectful treatment of frail, aged people in hospital comes as no surprise to many of us.

Who has not experienced seeing ill, aged relatives struggle to manage in acute-care hospital wards? For example, assistance with meals often just does not occur and so, in many instances, family members have to time their visits in order to ensure that their relative is adequately nourished...

Evidently Australia is awash with money – 34 billion dollars worth of tax cuts coming our way soon.  Then there is all the money spent on tax-payer-funded political advertising – more billions....

It has become a common phenomenon for politicians to respond to problems with the defensive 'best in the world' response.

This year's election battle is well underway. Our political leaders are campaigning non-stop. The pork barreling has started. And ageism is rampant. The classic example is when almost everyone considers that rehabilitation and aged care isn’t worth a crumpet...

Very few of us wish to dwell on how the last years of our life might play out. If we did, we would surely pay more attention to the increasing privatisation of aged-care services.  Do we really want our end-of-life experience to be defined by market forces?  Should the desire for profit underpin the care of those who can no longer care for themselves?...

The Melbourne Age is reporting regularly on the court case currently running between the management of Primelife and former CEO, multi-millionaire Ted Sent. There have been days of reports of alleged incidents of phone taps, video surveillance, payments to ‘underworld’ figures and secret taping of board meetings...

Just this last week, the Vice-Chancellor of Monash University, Richard Larkins, told a conference of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians that health care was being wasted on prolonging the lives of old Australians at the expense of people who sometimes died on hospital waiting lists. Now there's one for the ethicists. When exactly does an individual reach the age that good health care can be considered to be a waste of time and space?...

Senator Santoro has stated that he is very keen to encourage community participation within the Australian aged-care system. Indeed, the 1997 Aged Care Act makes provision for some level of community involvement through the creation of Aged Care Planning Advisory Committees (ACPACs) in each state. As well, the Minister receives advice from the Commonwealth Aged Care Advisory Committee (ACAC), which came to prominence during the recent publicity concerning elder abuse/neglect and the ensuing debate on mandatory reporting.

Money can buy anything these days. It can even buy a visitor for your mother in a nursing home. Yep, the aged-care consultants, agents and brokers will not only find you an aged-care place but they will also organise on-going visits to your family member or friend - for a fee! One wonders how it has come this.

One can barely imagine the trauma, pain and suffering experienced by a frail older person who sustains a fracture from falling. Yet it isn’t an uncommon experience. A recent Melbourne study indicates that falls account for 38 percent of all hospital injuries.
Osteoporosis Australia suggests that a fifth of those who break a hip will die within six months and, of those who live, one half will be unable to live independently.

Every time a new aged-care scandal breaks, trust and confidence in the entire system of care is diminished. How can anyone have peace of mind when they hear of the neglect or abuse of frail people in residential care? After all, any one of us might need full-time care at some future date?...

Victorian Public Advocate, Julian Gardner, has recently been on the air waves, and in the print media, espousing the view that the current demand for mandatory reporting is simply a 'knee jerk' reaction to the recent shocking allegations of sexual assault of frail older people in care. "It might look like action," he states and then proceeds to tell us why it’s really not.

Another study, another report. Yet again, we hear that many of our frail older citizens are undernourished.  This time, it’s a study by Western Health Services in Victoria - reported in The Age newspaper earlier this month.