Sandra couldn’t believe her father was being mistreated. She’d spent a lot of money to get him into what she thought was one of the best-aged care facilities in Australia, but the experience shocked her. According to her father, caregivers slapped and beat him, denied him food for hours, and didn’t take him to the…
Author Archives: alex.boyd
Disturbing media reports about the ill-treatment of elders across Australia’s residential care facilities contributed to the Government setting up a Royal Commission inquiry. While it is essential to report instances of abuse, neglect, and assault, we seem to hear very little about the older people who are living happily in an aged care facility. The…
May 2012. Glenn and Connie Samuels had been thinking about moving into a retirement village for the past 8 years. They had 4 wonderful children, all of whom were busy–they wanted to make the move while they still could and not be a burden to them. When they finally found the village of their choice…
When Ian’s parents were younger, he promised he’d never put them in an old age home. That felt cruel as if he was abandoning them. Fast forward 30 years and Ian’s dad was living with him, his wife and his 3-year-old daughter. As Ian’s dad grew older, his need for medical attention and physical assistance…
Across Australia, there are 2,200 retirement villages, housing over 180,000 seniors ranging in age from 55 to 100. But despite being an indispensable social necessity, Australia’s retirement villages face three major challenges. Inadequately skilled labour: A lack of specialised training, low pay, excessive work demands and lack of career opportunities frustrate workers, leading them to…
A survey conducted by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety showed that 39 per cent of aged care residents faced some form of abuse (the surveyed group included 391 residents across 67 nursing homes). One in every 20 residents complained of being roughly treated by the staff, physically restrained, or not being…
Thrilled at the thought of spending a whole 2 weeks with his ageing Dad who had come to visit, Dave had carefully planned their weekend outings in advance. Leaving the office an hour early on Friday, as he had planned, Dave thought of calling his dad to tell him he was on the way home….
CARETEQ is an Australian company that is responsible for delivering world-class technology solutions for Health and Aged Care, nationally and on a global scale. With 16% of the population (4.2 million) over the age of 65, Australia like any other country is growing older. A quarter of this population lives alone and over 200,000 depend…
Australia’s population is aging, but the number of people working in aged care is decreasing. According to a CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia) report, the senior care industry is facing a worker shortage and requires an additional 17000 workers to supplement its 240,000-strong workforce. Several factors contribute to the labour shortage in this…
Although many people join the aged care industry because they want to make a difference in people’s lives, some factors can impact job satisfaction. High workloads and administrative paperwork are the biggest concerns when it comes to aged care staffing. Residential care workers attribute the high workload to inadequate staffing levels and the high care…