Twice Betty Tuohy’s husband has disappeared from his Canberra aged care home without staff even noticing he was gone. He’s been in a home for the last year after being diagnosed with dementia and while Mrs Tuohy says some staff are wonderful, it’s clear for others it’s just a job. She shared her experiences on staffing shortfalls and care quality on Friday with a parliamentary committee investigating aged care services across Australia. After his first “escape”, Mr Tuohy was returned to his care home by two boys who found him in a nearby suburb after he’d fallen over. “The second time my daughters went down to visit after work. They went down to the room and he wasn’t there,” Mrs Tuohy said. “I put all this down to lack of staff; not enough staff to really know what is happening with them.” A third time Mr Tuohy was able to leave via a faulty gate. Mrs Tuohy believes there should also be mandatory education and qualification standards for carers, such as those for the childcare sector, and a requirement for facilities to have a 24-hour roster of registered nurses. Mark Brandon from aged care provider Estia Health told the committee he’d visited 300 nursing homes in the last few years. “The ones that seem to work really well are where the staff have a good relationship with the residents,” he said. The committee also heard changes to the Medicare levy or additional private health coverage could make funding for aged care services more sustainable. Kate Lawrence-Haynes, of Leading Aged Services Australia, said all funding levers had to be considered, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme. “(The government) needs to look at the Medicare levy, it potentially needs to look at (a) role for private insurance products so that people can insure themselves if they need residential care,” she said.
