industry & reform
The floor is open
Royal commission holds an
emotional community forum.
By Conor Burke
M
ore than 300 people attended
the Royal Commission into
Aged Care Quality and Safety’s
community forum at Sydney’s sprawling
Bankstown Sports Club on Friday 1 March.
Commissioner Lynelle Briggs attended
the event, which she said was the first of its
kind held for any royal commission.
Briggs cut a kind and jovial figure
and was at pains to put the speakers in
attendance at ease, acknowledging that
royal commissions can be “scary” and that
these forums were designed to be a more
casual environment for attendees.
Briggs told the audience that it would
“be easy” for the commission “to just hear
from providers”, but she wanted to hear
from “you” and all submissions from the
day would be read.
Each speaker was given four minutes
to give a statement to the forum, and it
started at breakneck pace.
The first speaker, an RN and carer,
shocked the room with stories of poor
wound care leading to fist-sized bed
sores and holes in patients. She spoke
passionately, calling bed sores a form of
torture and telling Briggs that any bed sores
should be investigated as a rule.
Another speaker, a 90-year-old
dementia advocate and COTA volunteer,
railed against the way dementia care is
administered. She told the forum that in
some areas there is only one dementia
officer to an electorate, sometimes up to
8000 people.
The charismatic nonagenarian also
spoke of the inadequacy of the current
10 agedcareinsite.com.au
home care packages, adding that they can
cause those with dementia to feel like they
have lost control.
The crowd groaned when she recalled
an incident where a woman was phoned
and told her husband’s Level 4 package
was ready after an 18-month wait – the
only problem being that her husband had
died 15 months earlier.
Another woman told the forum of the
financial hardship she has faced since her
mother was diagnosed with dementia
in 2013. She had to give up her career to
become her mother’s carer, and mandatory
council fire rules forced her to make
upgrades to her house and get a massive
mortgage in the process.
Recalling her huge credit card debt, being
threatened with default on her mortgage
and battles with the bureaucracy of home
care packages, she was nearly in tears. She
finished by imploring the various finance
ministers of the nation to attend the royal
commission so they can understand the
financial impact of being a carer.
Two deaf women spoke to the forum
through an Auslan interpreter. They
stressed that not enough was being done
for the deaf, and that there are currently
no provisions for Auslan services in aged
care. This point was rammed home when
they told the attendees that they had in
fact brought their own interpreter, as there
were none provided by the forum.
On a rare positive note, one gentleman
spoke glowingly about his experience
with a local provider. He was a carer for
an elderly neighbour, who now resides in
Bankstown City Aged Care in Yallambee,
and he said they were nearly perfect.
The afternoon was punctuated by gasps
at the horror stories some children of aged
care residents told and applause at the
bravery of the carers and nurses who came
forward to hold their industry to account.
The atmosphere in the room was tense
towards the end of the afternoon, and the
penultimate speaker, who spoke with no
notes, was visibly emotional.
He told the forum of the encounter with
the heads of an aged care provider on the
day they told him his mother had been
abused. They coldly told him to get over it
and move on. To applause, he told Briggs
that the providers cannot fix this, but –
pointing to the crowd – he said the people
behind him could.
The afternoon hit all the notes of the
song we have been hearing for a while now.
The need for staff ratios was a recurring
theme, as was better training, better food
and mandatory air-conditioning. The
“profit-driven” model of providers was a
concern, while expensive bonds for aged
care places was another issue.
The last speaker finished to loud
whoops and applause, the tension lifted,
the crowd seemed pleased that they had
been heard.
“What a success,” Briggs said in her
closing remarks. She summed up many
of the arguments from the speakers and,
as was evidenced from her furious note
taking throughout, she took to heart many
of the issues.
The forum was so important she said,
as some of the people who participated
would not have usually had the chance to
speak before a commission.
And paraphrasing one of the speakers,
Briggs told the forum that at present,
the sector is too focused on money
and funding and not enough on “love
and support”. ■