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Aged Care Royal Commission


LemonMyrtle

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He looked at a Freemason aged care facility close by and he would have had to pay $650k for a placement.

 

That is an insane amount of money :angry:


My experience with aged care has so far been very limited. Is this typical for the cost for a self-funded retiree?

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He looked at a Freemason aged care facility close by and he would have had to pay $650k for a placement.

 

That is an insane amount of money :angry:


My experience with aged care has so far been very limited. Is this typical for the cost for a self-funded retiree?

We found anything from $450 to $900 dependent on the extras that the place offers and where it was. The elderly wanting to go into private aged care will usually need to sell their home to get in and yes, there is a return of money to the estate once dead but the cost of a place is by far larger than the value of many of their homes.

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We found anything from $450 to $900 dependent on the extras that the place offers and where it was. The elderly wanting to go into private aged care will usually need to sell their home to get in and yes, there is a return of money to the estate once dead but the cost of a place is by far larger than the value of many of their homes.

 

That's definitely an eye-opener!

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Definitely it should have happened back then but privatising was definitely the wrong answer.


I know a few registered nurses who got out in the last couple of decades because the staffing and number of qualified staff reached rock bottom. They couldn't take it anymore.

My friend's DIL works at a 150 bed facility as an RN. It is divided into 3 wings and there is one RN per shift except night shift when there is an EN. The RN are responsible for the medications, doctor's rounds, specialist dressings, ordering stock, organising PD, organising ancillary services and supervision of carer staff for 50 people. She starts her medication round at 7-15 am for the 8am meds and finishes at around 11 am when it is time to start again on the midday lot. In that time she finds patients with their cold breakfast sitting on a table out of the reach of the patient who've consequently gone hungry.

She says she will have to move on soon, she can't in good conscience stay there.

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LemonMyrtle

We found anything from $450 to $900 dependent on the extras that the place offers and where it was. The elderly wanting to go into private aged care will usually need to sell their home to get in and yes, there is a return of money to the estate once dead but the cost of a place is by far larger than the value of many of their homes.

 

That's definitely an eye-opener!

 

And this is one of the reasons why the idea of running a profit or loss in aged care is so murky. Having a daily/yearly cash loss doesn’t matter if you have millions and millions of dollars in bed fees to play with and invest while you wait for someone to die.

Such a messed up system.

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Oriental lily

So weird how the system is working so well for my parents.

My parents both on a pension. Living in state housing . Dad moved in to freemasons originally for respite, place come up ,convinced Dad to take it ( very traumatic difficult decision) and basically all his pension went to the centre ( little bits left over . Mum rent in her housing commissi o house went down and she ' manages ,deffinetly not living the high life but not missing meals either . Of course my parents have zero assets .no inheritance for me but it seems less ccokmplicated then being a self funded retiree .

However we had very limited say on his placement or where .just pure luck it ended up in such a great facility.

That good care relies on such random luck and not necessarily 'planning for the future' is just wrong .Every person deserves high standard care without finances really coming in to it .Of course 'extras' like gourmet meals etc will always be on offer . But good care like what my Dad receives should be standard .

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Blueskies12

This is shocking. Yet in some ways doesn't surprise me. My grandmother visited her brother in Aged Care in the last few years and saw the conditions. When her health declined she chose not receive treatment so she could die at home, which she did. It sounds terrible, but it was the one thing I was relieved about.

My great aunt is is in aged care and it has been worse since covid, because she can't get out at all and were even locked out of the dining room (less human contact). I am worried about her, I feel she has depression.

Ageism is rampant here in Australia.

Edited by Blueskies12
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Chillipeppers

Don’t get me started on this topic. It’s very touchy for me. The things I have seen having my mother in an aged care facility in the past has made me realize I would rather die alone at home than ever be put in one myself.


I went to visit my mother once and found her in her room alone with the air con set to 31degrees. Judging by how she looked had had been in there for a very long time.


That was the least concerning issue. She would regularly miss being fed because it was “too hard” to feed her. We ended up having to take turns visiting at meal times to ensure she was being fed appropriately.


Rest her poor soul. I wish it was different. I don’t wish what she endured on anyone.

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Thankfully my grandmother was in a good one but I'm deeply worried about navigating this for my own parents, when it is their time.

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So weird how the system is working so well for my parents.

My parents both on a pension. Living in state housing . Dad moved in to freemasons originally for respite, place come up ,convinced Dad to take it ( very traumatic difficult decision) and basically all his pension went to the centre ( little bits left over . Mum rent in her housing commissi o house went down and she ' manages ,deffinetly not living the high life but not missing meals either . Of course my parents have zero assets .no inheritance for me but it seems less ccokmplicated then being a self funded retiree .

However we had very limited say on his placement or where .just pure luck it ended up in such a great facility.

That good care relies on such random luck and not necessarily 'planning for the future' is just wrong .Every person deserves high standard care without finances really coming in to it .Of course 'extras' like gourmet meals etc will always be on offer . But good care like what my Dad receives should be standard .

Going into an aged care facility when a full pensioner is definitely an easier transition as all the paperwork is done for you. It is very hard yakka for self funded people who need to often plead their case to get into a facility. Mum went in whilst dad was still living in their home, he had to find $175 k at the time to secure her a bed and then it was hundreds of dollars per week every single week.

The downside is availability of public beds in private facilities and the fact you go where the bed is and it may be hours and hours away from family.

I am pretty sure that my parents did not envision this when they were growing their super so as to not be a burden in later life.


I am really glad it works for your parents though OL...that is heartening news.

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LemonMyrtle

So weird how the system is working so well for my parents.

My parents both on a pension. Living in state housing . Dad moved in to freemasons originally for respite, place come up ,convinced Dad to take it ( very traumatic difficult decision) and basically all his pension went to the centre ( little bits left over . Mum rent in her housing commissi o house went down and she ' manages ,deffinetly not living the high life but not missing meals either . Of course my parents have zero assets .no inheritance for me but it seems less ccokmplicated then being a self funded retiree .

However we had very limited say on his placement or where .just pure luck it ended up in such a great facility.

That good care relies on such random luck and not necessarily 'planning for the future' is just wrong .Every person deserves high standard care without finances really coming in to it .Of course 'extras' like gourmet meals etc will always be on offer . But good care like what my Dad receives should be standard .

Going into an aged care facility when a full pensioner is definitely an easier transition as all the paperwork is done for you. It is very hard yakka for self funded people who need to often plead their case to get into a facility. Mum went in whilst dad was still living in their home, he had to find $175 k at the time to secure her a bed and then it was hundreds of dollars per week every single week.

The downside is availability of public beds in private facilities and the fact you go where the bed is and it may be hours and hours away from family.

I am pretty sure that my parents did not envision this when they were growing their super so as to not be a burden in later life.


I am really glad it works for your parents though OL...that is heartening news.

 

It does seem to be easier the less money you have. Which is not what you expect. (Unless you’re a millionaire of course and can pay for everything yourself)


My poor Nanna, she had nothing, no house, no savings, she was living off the single pension and family help. But when it came time to go to aged care they took into account an asset she had that was completely inaccessible, and everyone had basically written off, she could not get that money at all. They appealed and still that asset was taken into account.

She managed to get a bed eventually and she paid all her pension every week pretty much to stay there. I think the whole thing was only possible because it was in a small country town centre and possibly a relative paid something.

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And let's just note that this is the EIGHTEENTH inquiry in 24 years.


Aged care should be publicly funded and publicly run.It cannot continue to be a profit generating business, because to shareholder and owners, profit will always trump care. There should be adequate staffing, and staff should be properly paid and trained. Let's not forget that part of the reason Victoria had such a terrible run with Covid last year was due to poorly paid and trained care staff in private aged care facilities not being supported properly.


Dignity for the elderly, who have worked and paid taxes all their lives cannot be an optional extra.

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