industry & reform
Catherine Roche leaves the Victorian County Court
after giving evidence. Photo: AAP/Stefan Postles
‘National disgrace’
The young in aged care speak
at the royal commission.
By Conor Burke
“EVERY DAY I FELT LIKE
KILLING MYSELF”
Lisa Corcoran is sworn in to give
evidence to the aged care royal
commission in the usual fashion.
Counsel assisting Eliza Bergin then
begins the day with the regular formalities.
The unusual part is that Corcoran is
giving her evidence through her speech
pathologist and therapist, Liz Chard.
Corcoran is seated in her wheelchair,
paralysed, with speech difficulties, and
Chard is translating for the court.
You can make out the odd word here
and there, but for the most part, the court
waits while she speaks and Chard takes
notes, ready to relay the message.
“Ms Corcoran, what are your goals for
the future?” Bergin asks.
12 agedcareinsite.com.au
“My number one goal is to get the
fuck out of the nursing home,” Corcoran
replies matter-of-factly through Chard,
to some laughter.
“My number two goal is to hug my
children. I don’t need to tell you this,
you know. My number three goal is to
communicate better.”
Corcoran, 43, has good reason to be
frustrated. She is one of the 6048 people
aged under 65 living in permanent aged
care in Australia.
She describes her six-year stay in aged
care as a “nightmare” and says: “Up until
recently, every day I felt like killing myself.
I can’t move, so I can’t do this – I would
have if I could.”
Corcoran says she’s had to fight at times
to get her message across to staff at the
facility, exemplified by her struggle to get
more than one shower a week.
“I have an NDIA plan which initially only
gave me 60 hours of therapy and not much
more, but it’s been reviewed and they’ve
fixed it up,” she says.
“But before that, it was a nightmare. My
hygiene – I had to fight for a shower every
second day. I called a meeting with the
manager because I wanted to be washed
more than once a week,” she says.
As a vegetarian, she describes the
food as “crap” and talks about struggling
to socialise with other residents as they
often pass away, so she doesn’t like to
make friends.
Recalling a recent spate of six deaths
over two weeks at her home, she tells of
the emotional hardship of dealing regularly
with death.
“I just can’t get it out of my head. I heard
about these people dying as the nurses
told me. I saw one body being moved.
I saw his head in a red bag. This was at 12
noon when everyone was eating lunch.”
More concerning was the issue of
safety. In her statement, Corcoran said
she had been left outside in the sun for
hours on one occasion. She has also
been pinched and punched by staff, and
she told the commission she had been
sexually assaulted.
Corcoran is currently waiting to move to
a specialist disability facility and feels lucky
that she has “good people” around her.
When asked why it was important for
her to give evidence, she replies that it
is about fighting for respect for people
with disability.
“We all crave respect,” she says. “I feel
like I’ve lost that respect.
“I could be here with nothing on and I
wouldn’t feel any different.”
“WE DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT
HIM NOW, HE’S IN AGED CARE”
Catherine Roche talked about her late
husband, Michael Bird, who spent two
years in aged care after he had a stroke
aged 56.
She described the hard time she had
navigating the space between the aged
care system and the disability system.
After the stroke, Bird spent time in a
hospital rehab unit, where Roche faced a
“constant battle” to keep him there. The
hospital put “enormous pressure” on her to
move Bird to other accommodation, telling
her three months is the usual time allowed.
Bird stayed in rehab for nine months
before Roche was forced to move him to
aged care for lack of any other options.
Roche said she reached out to about 20
other rehab centres and approached
community care to find alternatives for her