How can we put an end to the greed in the private aged care industry?

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Rozellelily

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I live in Australia and with Covid we have had many elderly die from it in the Aged care industry in Victoria.
It had really made me think about the industry as a whole and the gross greed off the backs of the sick and ”vulnerable” older people .
On one hand, there are aged care executives paying themselves millions of dollars, living in mansions, and some even driving Maserati cars!
On the other hand, these same ”execs” are at the same time exploiting unskilled carer workers and paying them as little as (Aud) $20!
Almost the same wage as kids get for working at Maccas.

The workers are often migrant workers, having to take numerous casual shifts at different aged care homes (this is how covid got into the nursing homes) just to make ends meet. They are often financially stressed and physically rundown themselves (which we know is detrimental to the immune system).

The elders became the ”collatoral damage” of this system.

This is all ”criminal” to me.
Is there anything that Catholics (or really anyone with a good heart and sense of justice) can do about this or do we just have to accept this is the tragic side-effect of our capitalist society?
 
We can whenever possible care for our own aging parents to keep them out of a facility where they would be put at risk.
 
That’s what I was thinking too. Hire people to come help so they can remain at home if need be.
 
I’m blessed in that I’m able to care for my mom, who’s 94, full time in her own home, but I would not be able to do it if it weren’t for my pension.

The cost of providing skilled full time care is expensive. I don’t necessarily think it’s always greed on the part of elder care providers and facilities.

I would like to see the high cost of elder care further subsidized by the government, just as I’d like to see a universal or single payer health care system here in the US, but I know anything requiring tax dollars and government involvement is unacceptable for many here.
 
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I understand that in some cases, it is just not possible to keep them at home due to medical or mental issues where they need 24 hour looking after, but if it is just “normal” aging, I hope to be able to stay in my own home, with help if need be, when the time comes.
 
That’s exactly what I believe.
I believe we should stop ”outsourcing” our parents/grandparents care wherever possible.
However, when I started similar to what you stated in a different online forum here in Australia a woman said she was very offended by my comment.😩

So I feel that Australian society has now become in such a way where you are not ”allowed” even to state this or someone will say ”how dare you, you’ve offended me”.

I am from European migrant background via my parents who came to Australia and I believe that we should look after our own elders wherever possible (unless extreme sickness or extreme financial circumstance prevents).
However whenever I offer this viewpoint some Aussies get very angry and I have even been told (online) if I don’t like Australian view of aged care to ”go back to my own country”…
 
Thankfully that’s how it is with my mom. She can still think clearly and take care of basic needs like the bathroom on her own. Preparing meals, keeping track of medications, and household chores like cleaning and paying bills are more difficult for her now, and that’s where I am currently helping. The time may come when her health care needs go beyond my capabilities, but we’ll cross that bridge when the time comes.
 
For profit healthcare systems should…according to capitalism’s basic tenets of competition eliminating the bad ones…have care centers that are very good. But they aren’t particularly good, are they? Government regulations beyond basic care levels being required may be necessary to assure higher standards. However, make the regulations too good and the facilities are no longer able to squeeze out profits.

Could they be mandated to be non profits only? This eliminates a board of directors looking only at profits as any profit has to be returned into the care centers.

You can’t tell me that we don’t know what makes a good care center from a bad one. We need to be willing to regulate the bad out of them! Then have inspections and an ability to easily report bad behavior that is quickly responded to. It’s a fixable system if we quit worrying about the CEOs profits.
 
It’s like that in the US, too.
The bosses chronically short-staff or staff lower than the competency needed for level of care needed.

And if you ask the bosses for more staff you’re told something like “work smarter not harder”.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
work smarter not harder”.
Click to expand...
My boss said this to me once and I replied in my typical snark…if I was any smarter, I’d figured out how to have your job! She never said this to me again. We already didn’t get along great and this sure didn’t help. Later that year, she was “promoted” out of the lab and over to the IT department! I’m thinking she didn’t see it as a promotion…because it wasn’t! 😂
 
The only nursing home in my city that seems to be quite respected is run by…you guessed it … the Catholic Church.
There’s a non-profit!

I guess that’s not the question of the thread though. Are there any countries where the private nursing homes are generally well-run and not ripping people off?
 
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It really isn’t that different here in the U.S. CNAs (certified nursing assistants) working in nursing homes aren’t paid much more than minimum wage and are often poorly trained and badly treated.

This is why I opted to be a home health aide, so I could take care of people in their own homes and help keep them out of the nursing home. That’s usually the best bet, providing families can find honest, conscientious and dedicated home health care workers and communicate well with them and work cooperatively with them, along with the rest of the care teams that come in from time to time.
 
Hi @rozellelily. I am in Victoria and lost an aunt living in aged care in July this year. The biggest issue is or was in spreading Covid in aged care was casual workers on contract. They were working in several different facilities a week, or even in a day. Dan Andrews put a stop to that.
There are a lot of Australian born people working in the industry too, all you need to work there is a 6mth certificate to start working in the industry. Centrelink has quite a few private providers delivering this certificate.

There is an ongoing aged care overhaul now because of some of the practices in private aged care. Some of these places have internal reputations of bad administrative practices and high staff turnover and websites listing them within the industry as poorly rated workplaces.

Not all private centres are badly run, I think the answer , as in childcare, is in extensive and regular auditing.
 
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God judge.

Casualties are from prevention leakage. Contact to your congress rep to improve.
 
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