Peaks slam Seven’s Today Tonight
The peak aged care provider groups have sharply criticised Channel Seven’s ‘investigative report’ on residential aged care last Friday night, calling for an end to scaremongering and instead some informed and balanced reporting.
Above: Channel Seven’s Today Tonight program aired last Friday evening, 13 July.
By Keryn Curtis
Aged care provider peak associations have hit out at the Channel Seven program, Today Tonight, over a segment aired last Friday night, entitled ‘nursing home shame’, based on a claimed three month long investigation, which described ‘neglect at epidemic levels’ in Australia’s residential aged care sector, including poor quality food and widespread malnutrition.
The National CEO of Leading Age Services Australia (LASA), a peak association representing aged care providers, has accused the program of scaremongering and using unclear, unbalanced and in many cases unsubstantiated reports to perpetrate a myth about residential aged care.
Mr Gerard Mansour said the program lacked any context at all and was a ‘nonsense story’ and should be treated that way.
“Our aged care industry provides accommodation for nearly 200,000 frail older Australians every night, and we operate in one of the most challenging and highly regulated industries in Australia,” said Mr Mansour.
“We know there are isolated cases of poor quality care and any sector relying on people and dealing with people will sometimes not get it right. People sometimes make mistakes but that’s not the overarching case for the industry.”
He said that cases of homes being sanctioned by aged care authorities, was proof that the system is working to ensure the highest possible standards of quality in aged care.
“Recent data shows that well over 95 percent of all 2,800 homes Australia-wide are fully compliant with all 44 accreditation outcomes. This is an outstanding achievement for any industry and demonstrates that the community can have confidence in the system.”
“But this program’s approach was to take a few failures – where clearly the accreditation system did work – and suggest that it represents the whole industry – and that is a nonsense.
“As an industry we believe it is entirely reasonable for people to raise their concerns and we’ve worked closely with consumer groups to ensure that can happen. What I object to is the total lack of context.
Mr Mansour said it was important that the community knows that there is a system in place to ensure cases of poor care are identified and dealt with but that message was entirely missing in the report.
“They didn’t quote the accreditation record of the industry. There were a lot of key facts that would have been really valuable for the community to know but were glossed over or just ignored because they didn’t support their story.
“This is not journalism; Channel Seven has no credibility in calling this an ‘investigation’ into aged care. There was no effort to contact the peak associations or find out any real facts about the current reform issues or viability concerns or anything other than perpetrating an old myth.
“And while I am in this role, I won’t stand for that. It is entirely unreasonable. I will back the professionalism of our providers and their staff any day. Look at the dedication of our staff! How disappointing and disenchanting for them to have their jobs described this way,” he said.
The CEO of Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA), Adjunct Professor John Kelly, representing charitable aged care providers, also criticised the program for ‘trashy, sensational reporting’ and poor journalism.
“I’m always disappointed when sections of the media want to portray sensitive issues in an emotive and sensationalist way. This sort of sensationalist stuff encourages people to have a view about the quality of care in the aged care sector that is totally incorrect.
“The fact that over 95 per cent of aged care providers meet all 44 accreditations standards speaks for itself. We would support any investigation into isolated reports and complaints. These are part of the robust quality control system we have.
“We would encourage the media to have a dialogue with us; we can progress the discussion and have a debate about standards and quality. We would want to be a part of it. But to not even give the provider or the peak association the opportunity to say anything, that’s just poor journalism,” said Professor Kelly.
“It’s so poor, it’s dispiriting. There are so many important messages that the community needs to understand about aged care and this is what they do. They need to do their homework, go back to journalism 101,” he said.
In LASA’s statement, Mr Mansour has challenged Today Tonight to stop scaremongering and to examine the very real challenges confronting aged care providers – “including the Federal Government’s recent decision to take hundreds of millions of dollars of care subsidy funding away from residential aged care providers.” He said there has been no response from Today Tonight.
Well stated Greg Mansour and John kelly.It is great to see the peaks getting their shirts off their backs and supporting the frontline.
I would like to challenge the today tonight program to come and spend a week with me as I work with hundreds of facilities in all states. The care that is given in RACF’s is outstanding and professional in all but the few incidents that occur and when the compliance is not met. It takes years to build a good care facility, but unfortunatley it only takes two pay periods for one to fall onto one knee. These facilities are terribly underfunded and over regulated, the staff have much challenge in their daily working lives and are the least paid people in parrity to most workers.
In a world that is heading for a tsunami in older populations we need the media to focus on the good that is done and you will see how much the balance tips in favour of aged care being the best choice for people to live out their last days in dignified and respectful environments.
Growing old and living into our deaths is not what most people believe the journey will be.Our aged care system may not suit all but its a bloody good alternative to trying to survive on a pension without close support and someone to care for you when the going gets tough.
The media should focus a little more on the truth about how society treats its elderly, as a whole and improve the social support and network that exists today.
Today Tonight and its rival program A Current Affair are locked in a competition for ratings. The report on Aged Care is typical of the type of tabloid journalism these programs engage in. The old maxim “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story” certainly applies here and the Aged Care sector is not the first nor the last to be the subject of biased and sensationalised reporting by these two programs.
I did not view the program so cannot comment on that, however, from practical experience I know that the aged and disabled are the subject of abuse by people without life skills and values. Ongoing training and security checks are essential when peoples lives are at stake.
For a regulated industry, it’s surprising that there are not staff/resident ratios mandated as there are in child care. This is not scaremongering, it is what the residents live with every day and their families who try to improve the situation. There is a form of bullying that goes on at nursing homes that is atrocious. If you ask for care to be improved, such as ensuring someone has access to a drink, you are vilified for daring to speak up. There is no dental health in nursing homes. The food is terrible. Poorly trained carers, often with little English and a 5 week on line training course. High turnover of staff means there is no continuity for the elderly. Staff paid to “sleepover” at $8.00 an hour for high care residents. Residents too scared to press a buzzer as they will get into trouble for waking up the carer. That is not high care. Food that is disgusting. My mother was admitted to hospital three times for low iron. When investigated it was found to be poor nutrition. Eight falls out of bed. Told they will put a mattress on the floor so she doesn’t have far to fall. That is just inhumane. Can’t even be safe when you’re sleeping as the nursing homes doesn’t believe in restraining a person who is restrained by a stroke to the left side of the body. That is appalling care. Don’t have time to toilet people, three pads per day and the residents sit in their distress and discomfort endlessly. Placed in a lounge so they don’t have access to a buzzer. No preventative medicine so they develop haemorrhoids from being immobile and on a low fibre diet. There are a few amazing nursing homes but they’re incredibly hard to find as Accreditation means nothing as to the quality of care provided. As an industry, look at yourselves. Residents and their families are at your mercy and this is how you treat them. Aged Care Complaints useless. No one able to improve these appalling conditions. It’s a wonder there are not more reports on the news every night. People just too scared to speak out. All those in the Aged Care sector who participate in this type of care, where money and profits are more important than the elderly, I hope your consciences prickle you forever.
I have tracked fraud and dysfunctional behaviour by some of the largest health and aged care corporations in the world. There is a clear pattern that emerges. Whistle Blowers appear describing dysfunctional practices. There are an increasing number of press reports describing what has happened to patients or residents. Confident industry and company executives have been blind to what has been happening. The denials and attacks on the messengers become ever more strident as pressure builds. Accreditation and government oversight bodies have rarely been the agent exposing what has been happening. Its only when fraud investigators and independent outside bodies move in that the scandals have been exposed – yet the deniers have remained in denial. I have looked through many of the corporate documents and some court documents that have subsequently became available to try to understand why this happens and why it is usually endemic and not isolated. (see http://www.corpmedinfo.com).
Australian aged care has one of the most opaque oversight systems in the world so we don’t really know what is in there. They don’t even report nurse/patient ratios and the incidence of adverse events can’t be tracked. The changes proposed by the productivity commission are not really going to change this. No outside person can be sure what is happening in our nursing homes.
I am not a 7.30 fan but there is so much smoke around that, until there is some real sunlight in the nursing homes, I am going to stay at home and die there – if I possibly can!
The residents and their families who support them are the best ones qualified to comment on Aged Care. It is a difficult system to navigate as there is so much advertising hype about the quality of the care. Once you move a person into the home that sounds so good, you realise it’s too good to be true. The reality is over-worked, underpaid, under-qualified carers trying to do the best they can in appalling conditions. Three staff members to organise, dress, feed and help 60 residents, some of them very high care who need help with showering, changing and dressing. Three changes a day is the maximum and that’s if your very lucky to be changed that often. The food is appalling. It’s difficult to move someone when you find the care is horrendous. Bullying and threats. You suddenly realise your elderly person is just a commodity to the nursing home and they will do everything they can not to lose their income stream. Aged Care, in the majority, is a disaster. It needs a complete overhaul as no one seems to be able to get it right. Not Accreditation or Aged Care Complaints. Absolutely useless waste of tax payers’ money. If you can’t meet the basic needs of residents – being clean, good nutrition and access to a drink – you shouldn’t be running a nursing home. Too many people make decisions without having any understanding of the real situation in Aged Care.
It needs Directors, C.E.O.s, Accreditors and members of parliament who actually have some understanding, compassion and experience with caring for the elderly. There would be much less cost cutting at the expense of these vulnerable people. Talk to the residents and their families and you will find out how bad the care is.
I work in aged care and all I can say is well done Today Tonight.I am currently looking for employment elsewhere as I find myself in tears every shift i work.I wouldn’t feed most of the food to my dog .The treatment of residents is appalling.And these poor elderly are paying most of their pension if not all of it and more. Our facility had the assessors in and it was a joke .Management put the biggest bandaid on the place and I hung my head in shame .I’d like to see how these people react when it is their parents in care or God forbid themselves.I will haunt my children forever if they ever put me in a home like this.I have always wanted to work with the elderly and they have such lovely stories to tell but I’m scared I’m getting heartless like the rest of them, due to the fact that apparently I don’t have time to sit and talk to them.?