"I am glad people are stating to take notice - it could be us one day."

"My dear mother-in-law passed away 18 months ago aged 92. I felt that I had to go every day to supervise her care. So many things happened, little things and big things in the end I became so exhausted just trying to keep on top of all the problems that would arise. Most of the staff are wonderful but understaffing is a real problem and there is often only one trained sister in the evening to up to 100 or more residents.

My mother in law had lots of falls and was often there for some time as the nurses rounds are only every few house through the evening and she seemed to manage to fall between checks. One morning I found her on the floor at 8 am. Never new how long she had been there. She had a dislocated shoulder.

The ambulance took hours to come as she was not an urgent case. I could go on and on.

But when she was dying the nursing staff ask if we would mind if she died in another room - this was a small dingy room with hardly any light. I said "no" of course, and "if that is how they would treat her dying hours, I would take her home". Of course they backed down. When ask why, they said they needed to, as the room had a censor in it that went on when my mother-in-law tried to stand.

We knew she only had days so we dug our heels in. But what of the souls who have no one and there are many of those. I used to feed residents who had no visitors at all.

I remember one day I heard a staff member say "here she comes again". Well I was proud to defend my dear mother in-law. As she had always been there for me my husband and our children we loved her and still do of course. She was European background and regressed back to her language my husband unfortunately has lost most his language and there is no effort by the commonwealth to have help in that area, there must be so many elderly people who cannot speak English.

I do really feel for the staff though the good ones are just run off their feet - and most do care - it is just the insufficient funds for good care and supervision, I also found the food an issue."

[15 August, 2004:  in response to article published in "The Bulletin": "Broken Trust" - A system in crisis: How aged care is falling apart The Bulletin's special investigation reveals a system failing the aged and their families. By Julie-Anne Davies.]