My feedback is not very positive on the first two nursing homes my mother was in.  Appalling standard of care.

Both accredited. Which I since learnt meant nothing as to the quality of care or had anything to do with resident to staff ratio.

My mother is a high care patient.  In Nursing Home A she was one of (approximately) 60 residents in that wing.

The standard of care was so bad that she needed to be visited twice a day to ensure she had a drink.  Her jug was placed diagonally across the room, often without a cup.

My mother is paralysed down one side.  She could not walk across the room to get a drink.  The jug was changed every day.  No one noticed that there was nothing used from that jug.  No one wondered how she could get access to that jug.

She suffered 8 major falls out of bed because she developed haemorrhoids as there was no preventative treatment to deal with immobile residents on a low fibre diet.  The food was disgusting.  There are no checks or balances done on medication.

When we finally had a geriatrician visit mum he was able to look at her overall care and make recommendations and amendments.  For one year she was on a 20mg norspan patch which caused her to have horrendous hallucinations.  No one would listen and then one day after a nurse asked me about a "psychotic episode" I suggested they reduce the Norspan patch which they did with a miraculous result in that she had no further hallucinations.

Who are the people running these homes?

Have they never had an immobile patient before?

Do they just put the residents with "psychotic episodes" in the dementia ward?

The standard of care was worse than I would expect for an animal.  My mother used to say that if she was a dog, somebody would be in trouble for the neglect.  No one seems to be accountable in Aged Care.

Aged Care Complaints System is an absolute joke and I have nothing but contempt for it after experiencing its investigative prowess and total inability to do anything.

Accreditation means nothing.  It does not ensure quality of care. How much money is wasted on the people who go in to nursing and tick all the boxes regarding paper work?  If this is the best we can do, then every Australian should be ashamed.  There are profits being obtained from the suffering and neglect of the elderly.

My mother is now in Nursing Home B, and the difference is like night to day.  They actually know how to feed and care for the elderly.

Nursing Home A threatened me that if I moved my mother, she would die.  I had to let her go.

We decided, better to die trying to leave that hell hole than to stay.  Two years later and my mother is thriving from excellent care, great food that is nutritionally balanced and an atmosphere of hope, love and contentment.

Most carers in the other nursing homes were extremely distressed, overworked, underpaid and bitter workers.  The requirements of elderly people are huge.

Two or three workers cannot possibly help each person to get up, washed, dressed and fed - 60 residents.  They just seemed to bounce from one crisis to another with no time for anyone who was not in desperate need.

I don't know what games are played during accreditation.  Perhaps accreditors should have to spend a week as a resident before they are in any position to have even the slightest idea of what really happens in these below standard nursing homes.

I cannot understand how accreditors do not smell the neglect when they walk in if there visit is not a carefully scripted show.

Please, all of you in aged care - do your job.

Protect those who you are paid to protect and stop falling for the platitudes and paperwork that gloss over the appalling care.