Aged Care Crisis
for consumers, by consumers
More than half (52%) of aged care residents have symptoms of depression, compared with 10-15% of older people living in the community. As well as feelings of sadness and low mood, aged care residents with depression feel uninterested in activities, hopeless about the future, guilty about the past and may desire death.
Dignity is crucial to the proper operation of rights. If rights are to do what they are meant to do, they need to be deeply embedded in a country’s society and culture. It’s not enough just to have rights sitting on the books. The overwhelming majority of people in the country need to respect them at a personal level.
Residents subjected to the alleged events which occurred this time in a New South Wales nursing home, which included the horrors of having resident's genitalia photographed for some sick game; depriving a dying man of food; and taunting a dementia resident.
Excerpt: Submission - Review of the Aged Care Complaints Investigation Scheme, Dr J.M. Wynne (Section 9, Appendix, Page 31 )
The aged care "reforms" introduced in 1997 introduced a whole new range of words and concepts. These enabled a more impersonal and analytical approach. Parallels could be drawn with other activities and services. Aged care could be positioned in a broader context and its particular attributes ignored. At the same time a number of terms that were more accurate in describing the predicament of the aged had acquired connotations that were seen as depersonalising, medicalising, paternalistic or to reflect ageism. They were dropped.
probity - complete and confirmed integrity; having strong moral principles; "in a world where financial probity may not be widespread";
"he enjoys an exaggerated reputation for probity"
The concept of probity is a critical one. It is broad and cannot be defined within economic and managerial frameworks. You cannot specify it in terms of finance or management or even quality. It must be evaluated within a context of values and norms and it is relative. Any attempt to define it in watertight legal frameworks fails. What it is varies with where you are, what you are doing, what you plan to do and who is making the decision. That it does not fit neatly into modern legislator's patterns of thought does not reduce its importance. It serves to mediate service to the community against the self-interest of individuals.
Prior to 1997 nursing homes were required to disclose how they had spent the money given to them by taxpayers. They complained bitterly about this claiming that it was too "onerous" and "inflexible". They claimed it limited innovation and creativity. The Aged Care Act 1997 abolished all economic accountability.
