In my own experience abuse happens to those perceived vulnerable. I, myself have been targeted due to poverty, female, no partner, homeless, low income and so on. Yet I worked as an analyst could easily have been the mainstream and had a different experience. The same applies here to the elderly. We are dealing with abuse in the system and this detachment that occurs via professionalism and people appointed for their ability to park their emotions or positioned due to cultures of abuse.
What we do to the so-called ‘least of us’ we do to all of us. It says a lot about imbalance and dysfunction parading as ‘normal’ when we have lost our ability to protect each other as a sense of social responsibility.
A report was released in December 2021, one month after my mother’s verbal abuse incident when she was called a ‘fucking bitch’ by staff she told me. This was denied by the Assistant Manager at the time. I found out they had realised she was not a private home owner the day before and that she was government funded. My brother had got her in a nursing home with a long waiting list under delays in providing information. It seemed this was the reason. When I reported this to AFP police they took my testimonial. I also pointed out my conscientious objection to Covid vaccines as a potential point of vilification as well. My brother and the Assistant facility manager dismissed the abuse and indicated “mild hallucination” which was untrue. The police did nothing. My mother was horrified at the time, no-one had ever spoken to her like that. She rang me and told me. I think her case was the tip of the iceberg. She died 6 weeks later.
Who would go to a nursing home? I wouldn’t ever.
We require an Australian workforce who understand our culture and identifies with the elderly. That is what mum identified. Many carers left due to the coerced jab and overworking and understaffing. This is what happens when we make the care of elderly a public-private business inclusive of real estate. Many of what we thought were Christian run are actually not. The reason people chose these nursing homes is to ensure people are loved and those caring have values. Love is the core issue.
The issues of abuse in the government has not been resolved. So they can’t know how to solve the problem until they look into high level issues.
A research paper by the Royal Commission estimated that 39.2% of aged care residents experience emotional abuse, physical abuse and/or neglect (Royal Commission into Aged Care, 2020).
This is likely to be higher. What of End-of-Life drugs and induced deaths? During Covid Midazolam in the UK was increased and it is believed many were injected. My mother was given Midazolam and Hydromorphone when a letter had been written for this not to happen. So we have a real problem here for the safety of the elderly. But who really cares?
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Policy context
Elder abuse has gained significant attention in Australia in recent years as a serious problem requiring increased policy focus. Five abuse subtypes are commonly recognised: financial abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse (otherwise known as emotional abuse), and neglect.
The increasingly older age profile of the Australian population makes it particularly important to address elder abuse effectively. The 65 and over age group is expected to more than double from 3.8 million to 8.8 million in the next 25 years.
In Australia, research on elder abuse has been limited to studies looking at particular types of elder abuse (e.g. financial abuse), qualitative studies and those based on administrative data from services who provide support to older people. Such studies are unable to shed light on the proportion of older people aged 65 and over who experience elder abuse or which subtypes are most common. Nor are they able to assess other important issues, such as the extent to which elder abuse is under-reported.
As part of the National Plan to Respond to the Abuse of Older Australians, the Attorney-General’s Department commissioned the most extensive empirical examination of elder abuse in Australia to date, the National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study. This report presents the findings of that research program.
