Some people will find it harder than others to choose a new home care service provider to help with gardening or getting out and about.
from www.shutterstock.com
Older Australians needing extra help at home with bathing or gardening can now choose who provides that service. So what do you need to know before choosing a new service for yourself or a family member?
As our population ages, doctors and hospital staff need to know how to care for increasing numbers of patients with dementia.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Senator Jacqui Lambie told Q&A that a third of Australian age pensioners are living below the poverty line and that it’s estimated to rise to two-thirds within five years. Is that right?
Personal care attendants are responsible for residents’ personal hygiene – they’re not trained to undertake more complex assessments.
Reuters/Christian Hartmann
Nursing home providers looking to cut costs are bypassing registered nurses and employing less-skilled personal care attendants (PCAs) who aren’t trained for the job.
The rise of care is the biggest economic story of our time – but one rarely celebrated.
Carl Nenzén Lovén/https://www.flickr.com/photos/nenzen/
Admitting a loved one to a nursing home is a difficult decision and is usually only arrived at once the person’s care needs cannot be met by the family and community-based services.
All hail the ‘silver surfer’. But other terms used to describe older Australians are not so complimentary.
Shutterstock
Research shows people who suffer from loss of meaning die earlier than those who maintain purpose. We can help people find meaning again by nurturing their “spirit”.
A perverse funding incentive creates or maintains the dependency of older people living in nursing homes.
Mike Hales/Flickr
Most people in western societies die in hospital or in institutional care. Keeping death out of sight and out of mind means few people have real experience of death and dying.
Aged care residents are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than their house-bound peers.
www.shutterstock.com
More than 7,000 young Australians with disabilities are forced to live in nursing homes because they’re unable to find suitable accommodation that meets their needs. But this may be about to change.
There is precious little dignity available for those Australians who are in the last stages of their lives.
shutterstock
The contrast between rights with dignity and rights without is increasingly apparent with regard to two groups of Australians: retirees and those in aged-care facilities.
Devoting time to looking after others can result in significant hidden costs to the carer.
Shutterstock/Goodluz
If the 5.5 million unpaid carers didn’t look after others – at the expense of careers and incomes – taxpayers would bear the costs, so as a community we should give carers a fairer deal in retirement.
We all have the legal right to refuse health care.
Warren Goldswain
Have you thought about how you would want to be treated if you cannot make your own decisions? You may be unconscious after car accident, you may be so ill you cannot communicate, or you may be dying and…
The majority of Australians want to die at home but just 14% are able to do so.
Rustle/Shutterstock
The baby boomers are growing old and in the next 25 years the number of Australians who die each year will double. People want to die comfortably at home, supported by family and friends and effective…
We live in an ageing society, with the global median age rising steadily. Australia’s economic viability will increasingly rely on retaining older people in the workforce for longer. This, of course, relies…
Psychotropic drugs are often used to control the behaviour of people with dementia in aged care.
Harry/Flickr
Psychotropic drugs are being over-used in Australian aged-care facilities to chemically restrain residents, according to both researchers and several government reports. But despite all this attention…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne