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More money, better staffing please
Survey of staff and community members gives snapshot of what’ s necessary for better care.
Health professionals and community members have listed increasing government funding and implementing nurse ratios as steps that should be taken to improve aged care.
The calls come from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation( ANMF)’ s phone-in and online questionnaire earlier this year. Almost 2500 people took part, including nurses, assistants in nursing( AIN) and members of the community.
Just under 80 per cent of workers who responded to the questionnaire said staffing at their facility was not sufficient to provide an adequate standard of care, while more than two-thirds said the current ratio of RNs to other care staff at their facility was inadequate.
“ Staff are always working short,” one worker said.“ Even fully staffed, there are not enough staff to adequately care for the residents. On evening shift, one RN looks after 115 residents onsite, and another 25 offsite. It is not physically possible to provide quality care. ENs are caring for up to 35 residents each. Of an evening, an AIN cares for up to 34 residents by themselves.”
Of those surveyed, 93 per cent of workers and more than 96 per cent of community members said current funding for aged care was inadequate and did not meet the needs of aged-care residents. Two-thirds of workers and 60 per cent of community members said they would change their vote at the election if one of the parties restored funding to the sector.
One respondent summed it up this way:“ Put a politician in our jobs for a week and I’ m sure they’ d be keen to change things. Even better, admit them as a resident.”
The ANMF planned to send the survey report to the government, the opposition and the Greens. ■
Please see“ The rural reaction”, page 30.
Alzheimer’ s team wins funding
Transcontinental research squad studying new drug treatments earns grants.
( from left) Ralf Schwörer, Peter Tyler and Olga Zubkova, from the Ferrier Research Institute. Photo: Victoria University of Wellington.
A team comprising researchers from New Zealand’ s Victoria University of Wellington and the UK’ s University of Liverpool has been awarded grants totalling almost $ 815,000 to explore a potential treatment for Alzheimer’ s disease.
Just over half of the money has been pledged from the UK’ s Alzheimer’ s Society, closely followed by KiwiNet’ s
PreSeed Accelerator Fund and supplemented by the New Zealand Federation of Women’ s Institutes.
The team is made up principally of professor Peter Tyler, Dr Olga Zubkova and Dr Ralf Schwörer from Victoria University and professor Jerry Turnbull from Liverpool.
“ New drugs that can effectively halt or delay the progression of the disease are urgently needed and this funding is invaluable to progressing our work,” Tyler said.
After discovering how to make small heparan sulfates chemically in the lab, the researchers realised some of them have the ability to target an enzyme that creates small toxic compounds in the brain believed to be responsible for Alzheimer’ s disease.
“ Our molecules are targeted against the formation of these compounds called amyloids. Amyloids disrupt the normal function of cells, leading to the progressive memory loss that is characteristic of Alzheimer’ s disease.
“ The molecules involve sophisticated chemistry processes and have potential to slow or stop progression of the disease.
Zubkova added:“ We also designed a more simplified core for the molecules by replacing sugar fragments with smaller and cheaper carbon versions. The new products will be easier to make, and allow us to prepare larger amounts for testing”.
The research being developed is exciting, says Anne Barnett, general manager commercialisation at Viclink, the university’ s commercialisation office.
“ There are other drugs currently undergoing clinical trials that target the same mechanism; however, our drug candidates work differently and are expected to have far fewer side-effects.” ■
8 agedcareinsite. com. au