"May I ask you, did you read the latest issue of the Aged Care Crisis eNews?  In particular the article that is reached by clicking on the link "Shameful death". It can be found here.

This article raises many questions - One person in five will die a 'shameful' death, alone and without dignity, according to new British research.  I wonder how many die in Australia shamefully? Do you know Senator McLucas?..."

-------------------------Original Message------------------------------
Anonymous(name and details supplied)
Sent: 19 May 2007
To: senator.mclucas@aph.gov.au
Subject: Shameful deaths in nursing homes

Dear Senator McLucas,

I am an ABC News Radio addict. I really enjoy listening to the Parliamentary broadcasts. I have listened to you speak in the senate several times, and read a couple of your speeches in Hansard, and read the Ageing Policy Discussion Paper you released in September 2006. I am a swinging voter, however because of the WorkChoices legislation, I will be voting for the Labor party at the next federal election. I am emailing you because you are the for Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers and I sincerely hope that you will be the next Minister for Ageing.

May I ask you, did you read the latest issue of the Aged Care Crisis eNews?  In particular the article that is reached by clicking on the link "Shameful death". It can be found here.

This article raises many questions - One person in five will die a 'shameful' death, alone and without dignity, according to new British research.  I wonder how many die in Australia shamefully? Do you know Senator McLucas?

I read Allan Kellehear's book. On page 204 he writes "Clearly long life-expectancy is becoming a mixed blessing for the wealthy industrialised nations of the cosmopolitan period. Deaths in nursing homes or living and dying with dementia, whatever its ultimate causes, are not styles of dying that are readily made 'good' by a dying person who is confused or has a seriously imperfect memory. Nor is such dying amenable to being well managed by carers who either burn out at home with depression and stress or who simply institutionalise their elderly, leave them unattended or provide them with minimal care."  Kellehear, A. (2007). A social history of dying. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

If you do not already receive this eNews Bulletin and wish to you can subscribe at: http://www.agedcarecrisis.com/acc/esubscribe.asp.  Lynda Saltarelli runs this wonderful website. She was part of a team of three that made an excellent submission  to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Aged Care.

The article ends: "There are so many questions that are just not being asked:

• How much palliative care training is available to staff in aged-care facilities these days?
• Who is mentoring the generally low-skilled staff as they attempt to support dying residents?
• What de-briefing occurs?
• And how are family members assisted with their loss?

Maybe these are some of the questions we should all be asking our new Minister for Ageing. But my bet is that they are not ones that have been too much in the mind of the up-and-coming politician from South Australia."

Senator McLucas, if you become Minister for Aging, then these are some of the questions that people will ask you. I would hope that such questions will receive a higher prominence from you, than the team at agedcarecrsis.com believe they are receiving from Minister Pyne.

I emailed Minister Pyne seven weeks ago to ask him "Do you have any personal policy statements on Aged Care and the future of Aged Care?"

Perhaps it is because I work at the coal face of aged care, that I have yet not received a reply. I am forwarding you the email I wrote to Minister Pyne.

I vaguely remember years ago a health minister whether State or federal I forget, who followed a couple of hospital nurses around for their entire shift to see for himself how difficult it was to be a nurse. Senator McLucas, would you consider doing something similar? Would you consider working just one shift as an extra pair of hands in a nursing home, observing how AINs care for our elderly who are dying?  If you would and if you could arrange it, I would be willing for you to observe me work, and watch me take the shortcuts we have to take every shift just to get all the work done.

• See how we shovel unpalatable slop down the residents throats, so that we can feed the residents at five o'clock so that the kitchen staff can finish their shift on time.
• See how we are only supposed to change urine soaked incontinence pads three times in a twenty four hour shift.
• See how we don't have the time to sit with dying residents.

Please come unannounced unlike the accreditation teams who visit once every three years for their check, or the Swiss Red Cross who visited Theresienstadt concentration camp and reported that the Jewish inmates were being well cared for. Come unannounced so that you can observe the hands-on care first hand.

Perhaps then you could the answer to Sally's plea..."Oh that we could get someone who really, truly understands how it feels, to take control of this whole SHAMEFUL, DISGRACEFUL situation."

Respectfully
Anonymous (name and details supplied)