Amid horrific aged care stories, there is joy, care and connection Residential aged care has suffered two fresh blows in the past fortnight. First, there was the terrible story of 95-year-old Clare Nowland, who was allegedly tasered by a police ...
More »Opinion
Using ‘human touch’ to care for people living with advanced dementia: opinion
More people living with the advanced stages of dementia are transitioning to residential aged care facilities as they approach the end of life. Palliative care, aimed at improving quality of life, is primarily provided as terminal care. But there has ...
More »Governing for good aged care: opinion
You've just joined an aged care board. You reckon you'll be there for five years and are keen to make a difference – but it's looking harder by the day. What are you going to do? Keep it simple. You ...
More »‘This is just the start’: Anika Wells reflects on Royal Commission
March 1 marks two years since the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s shocking final report was tabled in Parliament. The Royal Commission was a damning assessment of an aged care system in crisis. After years of ignorance, ...
More »Using complaints to improve aged care
As a sector, aged care has a breadth of responsibility that sets it apart. Supporting not only older people’s daily activities, living arrangements, and social needs but also attending to many of their health-related care needs. For aged care clients ...
More »Automation promises the support Australia’s aged care workers need – opinion
In a sector that epitomises meaningful work, it's only recently that technology has emerged that can aid staff and facilities to focus more on frontline care. Meaningful work, as a concept, has been discussed in academic, people and cultural circles ...
More »The value of providing home care outside the home – opinion
Over the past ten years the range of care and support that can be easily accessed by elders who depend on care at home in this country has become increasingly narrow. Despite the rhetoric of increasing consumer choice and of expanding ...
More »Ageism may be the result, but is it the cause? – opinion
This is a difficult time for aged care in Australia in so many ways. We know this from personal experience working in aged care or from using it or visiting loved ones dependent on it. We know it also from ...
More »Why no outcry over record aged care deaths? – opinion
More aged care residents have died with Covid in the past 10 weeks than in the entirety of 2020 and2021 combined, recent Health Department data shows. Hardly surprising. If large numbers of people live communally in shared spaces, that we ...
More »Could ‘virtual nurses’ be the key to aged care staffing shortages? – opinion
Former Health Department Chief Martin Bowles has reportedly proposed “virtual nurses” could help address the shortage of nurses in aged care. This might involve remote, possibly artificial intelligence-assisted, virtual care, rather than physical nurse presence, to assist nursing homes to meet new ...
More »