industry & reform
husband, but she felt that “when they heard
that Michael had moved into the aged care,
they quietly put his file away and basically
said, ‘We don’t have to worry about him
now. He’s in aged care’.”
After an initial period where Bird’s health
improved, Roche said the aged care
environment began to take a toll on the
young man. Most residents were older than
him and half had dementia, Roche said, so
he struggled to find common ground.
“Over time, what it meant was Michael
became more and more isolated. And ... he
would just remain in his room day in, day
out,” she said.
Unfortunately for Roche and Bird, when
the stroke first occurred, the NDIS had yet
to be fully rolled out. When it reached their
area, it was not a simple process, even
for someone with project management
experience like Roche.
“[For] somebody who doesn’t have that
work experience, I think it would be very
difficult for them to actually meander
their way through the miasma of getting
funding,” she said.
In the end, Roche believes that if
she had not been forced to move Bird
into aged care and had other options
for his rehabilitation, “he would still be
here today”.
“In my experience, case management is
fundamental to helping younger people
who have a disability.
“The biggest challenge I faced was a lack
of a road map or any pathways for Michael
other than aged care.
“In Michael’s case, aged care was clearly
not an appropriate place for a younger
person with a disability.
“Residential aged care facilities are
seen as a place for people to be made
comfortable as they prepare to die. Michael
was not there to die and quite the opposite.
He wanted to recover and recreate his life,”
she said.
“AT BEST A NATIONAL
EMBARRASSMENT, AT WORST
A NATIONAL DISGRACE”
On day two of the Melbourne leg of the
royal commission, we gained a rare insight
into the thoughts of the commissioners. In
a scathing indictment of the disability and
aged care sectors, commissioner Lynelle
Briggs called the current system “a national
disgrace”.
This came after yet another day
filled with tales of poor treatment and
mismanagement, this time involving
younger Australians in aged care.
In testimony given by Dr Nicholas
Hartland, the first assistant secretary of the
health department’s In Home Aged Care
Division, he agreed that aged care was no
place for the young.
“It’s been a somewhat intractable
problem in aged care, and there has
remained about 6000 young people in
residential aged care, and I don’t think
there’s anyone who would say that that’s
appropriate. It’s far too high a number,” he
told counsel assisting Peter Rozen.
We heard from Hartland that $120
million dollars in funding aimed at reducing
the instance of young people in aged care
yielded only a drop from 6557 people to
6381. And even then, as Rozen pointed
out, on closer inspection of the statistics
from the start of this funding in 2006, there
was actually an increase in young people
entering aged care every year. A fact
Hartland put down to population growth.
“I accept your point about the general
increase in population during the period,
but it’s a very poor outcome, isn’t it, for
such a program? If that’s the best we can
do as a nation with all our governments
combined and significant resources being
thrown at this problem, it’s not a good
outcome at all, is it?” Rozen asked.
At times he and Hartland disagreed
on the intentions and interpretations of
statistics of the various departments,
causing Briggs to interject when it seemed
that Hartland wasn’t getting to the issue
at hand.
“It seems that because the numbers of
young people with disabilities are pretty
much stable at around 6000, with a flow-in
each year of around 2000, that there’s
not been a lot of will within the system
to try and stem that flow or, indeed, to
try and help people move out to other
more appropriate arrangements. Do you
think they’ve been forgotten?” she said at
one point.
Rozen later questioned whether the
targeting of funds to a specific age group
within the under-65s was an attempt to
manipulate the overall statistics.
“A cynic, Dr Hartland, might observe that
if you pick a relatively small group and put
all your resources into that small group – it
used to be under-50s, it’s now under-45s,
we’re talking about a few hundred people
– if you put all your resources in there, then
you’re going to be able to claim a bigger
percentage reduction in that cohort at the
end of the relevant period,” he said.
Frustrated by Hartland’s response, Briggs
again interjected. As Rozen concluded
his questioning on day two, Briggs took
Hartland to task before making her
feelings clear.
“Young people with disabilities is a
clear area where Social Services, NDIS,
Department of Health, states and
territories, and various other stakeholders
need to be working together, rather than
separately and doing buck passes. I don’t
want you to comment on that, I just want
you to understand that would be the view
of certainly this commissioner,” she said.
“I put it to you, Dr Hartland, that the
current system is at best a national
embarrassment and, at worst, a national
disgrace.”
ROYAL COMMISSION GIVEN
SIX‑MONTH EXTENSION
Governor-General David Hurley has
signed off on a request from the Royal
Commission into Aged Care Quality and
I saw one body being
moved. I saw his head in a red
bag. This was at 12 noon when
everyone was eating.
Safety for an extension of six months,
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck
announced in September.
Colbeck also named an additional
commissioner – retired Federal Court
judge Gaetano (Tony) Pagone.
Before his appointment to the federal
court, Pagone was a judge of the trial
division of the Supreme Court of Victoria
and had been the judge in charge of the
Commercial Court of that Court.
A graduate of Monash University, with a
master’s degree from Cambridge, Pagone
is a specialist in taxation law.
In a statement, Colbeck said: “It is
important that our aged care sector
continues to provide high quality care and
that we understand where we can make
improvements.
“The government has continued to
implement reforms while the commission
progresses, as we said we would, including
the commencement of new aged care
quality standards, a charter of aged care
rights and strengthened provisions around
the use of restraints.”
Initially, the commissioners were
required to provide an interim report by
31 October 2019 and a final report by
30 April 2020. ■
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