The Column

Imagine Alice - single woman, no children, getting older, some health issues. Alice decides to take steps to provide for her own care. She has been an independently-minded person all her life and does not wish to be a burden to her extended family.

With some help and following an ACAT assessment, she chooses a low-care home. The facility she finally decides on has great promotional material showing many happy faces. The building is pleasant and one of the features promised by the home is ageing-in-place.

This seems like a good idea. Alice doesn’t want another difficult move at her stage of life...

The festive season is here. It is party time and the food is celebratory and abundant. As a counterpoint, we could consider the levels of nutrition experienced by frail aged people right across the community.

Meals are markers of the day for all of us – but they are especially so for those who have limited mobility or who are confined to the lonely room of an aged-care facility and for those who might be isolated within their suburban home. It is sad then, when the food disappoints and/or has little nutritional value.

A resident of a nursing home dies and the family is summoned.  A doctor issues a death certificate. A priest performs last rites.

But four days later things change. A junior staff member - a nursing student- claims that there was a tragic accident and that the truth has not been told to the family or the doctor. She is sacked the next day.

The aged-care reforms, Living Longer Living Better, (LLLB) introduced by the former Labor Government, and supported by the present Government, came into effect this month.

The changes are mostly structural ones designed to address issues related to funding both residential and community care for an ageing demographic. They are the result of an extensive Report brought down by the Productivity Commission in August 2011.