My 98y.o.mother has dementia and Paget’s disease then in 2019 diagnosed with brain cancer, and she reached a point where she had to go into Care.
Mum has been in one of the many high care wards of a church-affiliated aged care home since June 20/22 They take 85% of her pension every fortnight, and a lot of the residents that were living alone or had an attractive bank balance also had to sell their homes to pay an accommodation fee.
My mother’s gambling addiction kept her bank balance “unattractive” also leading up to June I was her live-in carer for ten years, the house is safe(so far)because I am still living in it. Personally, I think the 85% payment every fortnight is more than enough and it should cover everything, without the pharmacy and visits from the resident doctor being extra. Also, a phone for the deaf connection is an extra $50 a month.
There are well over 200 rooms in the dementia wards, and at the moment they are all full. Just from those wards alone and going on the assumption that everybody is in there on 85% of their pension, the facility is collecting a rough estimate of three million dollars a year.
I don’t understand why the food cannot be of quality, all that money being paid every fortnight but I am yet to see any fresh vegetables, they are always frozen and boiled to the point of having no nutritional value. The obvious cheap cuts of meat that are hidden in stews are impossible for the elderly to chew. The meals are always barely warm, which alone is unappealing to a lot.
Of course, they have a lot of waste, the residents are demented, not stupid. I understand the plastic glasses and bowls but why can’t they be replaced when they are so scratched and clouded they look dirty? The lack of imagination from the organisers regarding activities is astounding.
Instead of handing out a gold chocolate coin for a Bingo win why not give them a voucher for a free coffee or ice cream from their overpriced cafe, or they win a nurse to push them around the grounds, that way people that rarely have visitors get to see the duck ponds and feel the sunshine on their skin, they need stimulation, not a bite-size chocolate.
I cannot fault the staff they are all lovely and go above and beyond trying to help my mother and all of the other residents but they have to follow rules and regulations to keep their jobs.
Feature Image by https://www.canva.com/p/studioroman/
Care That’s Close To Home: The Benefits of Community In Aged Care
