Medication and General Welfare

What possible justification can they have for now not allowing essential non PBS medications prescribed by doctors. So people who were previously able to have them paid for from their HCP and cannot afford to pay for them have to suffer. Common sense would have been for them to have consultation with us so they understood how this incompetently thought out and worded change would have caused people to suffer and create so much conflict between the providers and us. Are these things written by idiots or is the government so focused on saving a few $ that they just don't care. If they spent their time and energy stopping providers ripping us off them would save a lot more money. P.S.

How ludicrous Providers are not doctors …doctors do not write up scripts for something you do not need. U.L.

Non PBS Medication

I take melatonin to sleep. Used to be covered, now costs me $70! Not to mention the cramps that wake me multiple times during the night, don't take anything as I can't afford it. M.S.

As a health professional myself I can’t believe how dishonest and uncaring it is to take out nonPbs medications without consultation or giving time to find another option. The reason people are on nonPbs meds is because drs have exhausted pbs options and is a last resort. Not to mention that a number of pbs medicines gets moved to nonPbs every year. Not because they don’t work but to juggle the pbs budget by the pen pushers.

There is a direct correlation to health outcomes by falsifying this example as it being legislated when it wasn’t. You are right, people can die or suffer needlessly. I don’t know any health professional who would cease a medication cold without offering an alternative. For a first world country, it is heartless.

Those who wrote these guidelines knowingly did this to our elderly community. I do think that this is how they will push through the legislation, they will say, nonPbs exclusion was in the manual all this time so it should be legislated without really looking or measuring the health outcomes of taking it away. Dirty Politics. I think lobbying another party to block the legislation is one way. It might not work due to the example above as it is currently in the manual and is in practice.

I think the only way to do it is to sue the government for forcing the providers to adhere to a manual which is not legally binding and the plaintiff has suffered poor health outcomes as a result. How many people or providers will stick their necks out against the hand that feeds them? The elderly, frail and disabled are always taken advantaged of. They can’t fight back, shame that it’s the government who is the bully in this instance. It’s just sad that real lives are affected but when it comes to building infrastructure funding, poor process and billions in blowout, there is no accountability.

I’m so disappointed in this government. I understand that the legislation is broad and the manual is to help providers with examples but every situation is different.

Providers are paid for case management to assist the client with their goals within the framework of the legislation. If providers are not allowed think and be flexible within the framework of the legislation to keep clients at home then the government should just provide a list of approved items and there is no need for big case management fees. That would save a lot of money! So much emphasis about care and goals to stay at home when really, they just want to roll back the program to just minimal support hours for a care worker and everything else is a exclusion. M.T.

“Social Isolation as it pertains to the aged. Given that Australia has lacked in the amount of research it has done on this issue I looked at information from Relationships Australia, The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, as well as a few very limited sources associated with aged care homes who, by the way, do place relevance in social isolation.

Other information was gleaned from both England and America. For your interest, these are some of the findings that should be of interest… Older Australians are more likely to experience social isolation, and loneliness than ‘any’ other demographic. Over 75’s experience loneliness more than any other group. Australian Bureau of Statistics show that over 65’s are increasingly likely to live alone, and therefore it becomes more common that they suffer social isolation.

Social Isolation

There is also noted that’ Self isolation is common amongst people who have previously worked predominately in Emergency Services, Community Services, and there also is notation of former Armed Services.

Risk Factors for Social Isolation: Living alone…..Being divorced, widowed, or separated….chronic illness…..mobility issues…..loss of family or friends…..not living near loved ones…..transportation challenges. The Australian Institute for Health and Wellbeing noted in research papers in Feb, 2023 that Social Isolation/ Isolation can be significantly harmful to both mental, and physical health, and has been linked to premature death, inclusive of suicide, and that loneliness in aged can be just as bad for us as smoking 15 cigarettes each day.

In summation I must say that I was left to wonder if the current minister is even aware of what social isolation us, let alone the serious issues it can create. I am saying this as a result of the difficulty experienced in finding credible sources if information in Australia at all. Given the amount if general reading done in the last 24 hours I also need to say that I really wonder if the terms ‘Aged Care’ Aged Persons’ are appropriate in that it appears obvious that they relegate to a level if lesser importance on a community level. I am left, therefore to ask myself if the wording of ‘Senior Care, and ‘Senior persons’ isn’t actually more appropriate, and definitely more respectful. It seems that the word ‘Aged’ diminishes the usefulness of these people in the minds of many.

I hope that this information creates awareness for you. And creates perhaps a need for acceptance within the HCP guidelines, which it has negated to do so far.”
Research by M.K . ( HCP recipient)

Comments & Discussion

The history of mum and dad is they lived in their home in Qld in a park for the over 50s. A park with no medical help on hand which I feel should be against the law. Dad had dementia and mum has very poor eye sight so when they decided to take dad into care, they took mum. Mum walked out and went back to the house and dad later tried to do the same but fell on his head and his dementia was suddenly 10 times worse. They were then taken to various care homes until they were settled into the one in Qld.

As I was not privy to the POA documents, and I don't know where to start to learn about the process of being put into age care, there is so much about mums 'captivity' in the care home I'm not sure what the answers are to things that I would like to see changed. IE, a key one is the care home does not 'care for her' but rather provides a room for her where she sits on her own all day and some times eats the meals which are largely pushed away and she has a sandwich instead. I spent a month in Oct/Nov after dads funeral with mum and on any given day we saw the tea lady, the cleaner and the nurse if I went looking for her. IE, no-one was coming in to check on her, see if she wanted anything done etc. Only one in the family of five can/will visit her but she lives 700 miles away. So mum is isolated from family.

What I want to find out is there any way mum can access her money in the bank (there are two POAs in the family but one is house bound). I'd like to see mum be able to pay for a volunteer carer to come and see her (and other residents too if pos) every day (or two days etc) and take care of simple things like putting fresh batteries in her hearing aids, turn the TV on after she's had a nap, music on too if needed, chat, get her some food as I have been doing for 18 months now (fruit/cake/drinks/tissues etc) and so on. I spent a month there last October/November doing this but can't do it from here of course and mum is in such distress thinking things are being stolen from her (her imagination causes her stress) and so I want to try and improve this terrible end of life time she is having. She had 200k in the bank in 2022 but whats left who knows. Not being able to access that money (bank refuses to let her have any) is causing her a great deal of distress.

I'm just not sure there is anyway round this as I'm reading so many articles on the ABC about how the Aussie elderly are being treated so badly, stopped from accessing their bank accounts etc, so I'm not sure if there is any more I can do for her. Through out this time of her being in there I have often wondered whether there is some one who can answer questions about aged care which is why I came to this organisation. PS: I will add that care homes are at the mercy of those in charge. IE, the one mum is in, has seen managers ignore me totally when I was there but recently, but one, the residential manager (new I think), has acted upon some of the things I have raised like putting a phone in mum's room which is a godsend for me wanting to talk to her, and also organising some wool which mum can't go out and buy. L.H.

My mother is in a care home in Queensland. She is 92 going on 93 (August). I live in England because the govt would not give me a permanent visa to return to my family in Australia a few years ago to look after mum and my late dad. We all emigrated from England in the 60s when I was 5 and I went to school and worked there until I was 28 and came to work in England. Been here ever since thinking I could return when ready and when I saw the trouble mum and dad were in with no-one in the family willing/able to take them in, I applied for a permanent visa to return home but the govt refused it. So my parents went through several care homes until they ended up in Qld. The rest of the family is NSW and I'm in England.

I did spent two months with them in 2022 at a cost of $30k (a loan I took out here) and saw dad in April who then died five months later due to infections caused by either the hospital or the care home staff. IE, he didn't just die of old age having acute dementia. I don't understand a system where people like my dad are put into homes because of dementia by their doctor and health officials to stop them doing anything silly (wandering away from his house etc) and instead they get pushed around in the home by other residents with severe dementia, end up in hospital, go back to the home, get an infection and die. That's' what we're lead to believe happened to my late dad.