Witness Statement of National Seniors Australia 31 January 2019 1. Witness Statement of National Seniors Australia 31 January 2019 Statement of National Seniors Australia Name: Professor John McCallum Date of birth: 3 October 1949 Address: 4/26 Bougainville Street, Manuka ACT 2603 Occupation: CEO and Research Director, National Seniors Australia Date: 31 January 2019 This statement made by me accurately sets out the evidence that I am prepared to give to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. This statement is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief and is based, where relevant, on research done by Nationals Seniors Australia. The views I express in this statement are my own based on my education, training and experience. I make this statement on behalf of National Seniors Australia and I am authorised to do so. Professional background Academic researcher and senior manager in tertiary education and medical research, CEO and Research Director of National Seniors Australia since 1 May 2018 with Qualifications: Ø BEcon, Hons Psych, University Medal (UQld); Ø BPhil, MPhil, DPhil (Oxon); Ø FASSA; MAICD and 2Lt RAInf (OTU). Education Ø Educated in Queensland, Dux of St Brendan’s College Yeppoon Ø Four years study Banyo Seminary, Head of Philosophy House Ø National Service 2ndLt officer, worked as a 2IC Arms and Services Company in the Pacific Island Regiment receiving three service medals then as Employment Officer at Bougainville Copper in Papua New Guinea. Ø Economics and Psychology and the University Medal at University of Queensland, Ø Bachelor, Masters and Doctoral studies at Nuffield College, Oxford University UK before returning to Australia. Employment history Ø Faculty foundation and research roles at Griffith University Ø One-year sabbatical Andrus Gerontology Centre at the University of Southern California writing a collective book on work, education and ageing Ø Research roles Nanzan University Nagoya, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Renmin University Beijing and ESCAP Bangkok Ø Full-time research fellow Ageing and the Family Project Research School of Social Sciences, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at Australian National University 1983-1995 Ø Executive Dean Health and Social Sciences University of Western Sydney 1995-2004, established multi-disciplinary Health Faculty with new allied health and a medical school, received Campbelltown Council Community Service Award as Campus Provost Witness Statement of National Seniors Australia 31 January 2019 Statement of National Seniors Australia 1. Meeting current and future needs Documenting, measuring and improving the consumer experience is the primary focus of National Seniors research and advocacy. Measuring the experiences of consumers is the best way to assess whether a complex array of services meet their differing needs. Consumer experience monitoring has recently come into the work of regulators with the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency’s Consumer Experience Report launched 17/8/17. The most recent Consumer Experience Report was based on over 15,000 random interviews with residents of more than 1,100 aged care homes conducted by Australian Aged Care Quality Agency 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018. The survey found that over 97% of respondents felt staff treated them with respect either most of the time or all the time, while over 98% said they felt safe in the service most or all the time. The data indicated that 16% of interviewees only liked the food ‘some or none of the time’, with 3% feeling they weren’t able to talk to staff if ‘they feel sad or worried’. A clear dissonance exists between these results and the cases and statements coming before this Royal Commission. The National Seniors Report on Home Care for the Aged Care Services Workforce Strategy [1. Accentuating the Positive] found of the 4536 consumers surveyed, around 1000 had experience of home care. Of these, 87% agreed personal care workers treated them with respect. The key findings on the experiences in Home Care, including a “not applicable” category for those who were ambivalent or didn’t feel close enough to the service encounters to comment were: • 87% of respondents agreed personal care workers treated the household with respect; • 63% agreed the personal care and support met the clients’ needs in areas such as clinical care, showering, and household services; • 68% agreed personal care workers explained things to the client; • Almost three quarters agreed that workers know what they are doing and are well trained; • Just over half agreed the person receiving care was encouraged to do as much as possible independently, and shown how to do it; and • 67% agreed the service organisation was well run. On two important items the response tended to the negative: • Less than half agreed care was well-coordinated and connected with other health services, e.g. physiotherapy, podiatry, out-patients; • 31% agreed that Consumer Directed Care (CDC) was helping to meet more of their needs now. Respondents were ambivalent about the benefits of Consumer Directed Care due to its novelty and lack of awareness of the term or understanding of the concept i.e. low ‘consumer literacy’. The provider role in CDC has been weak with lack of training and advocacy for the consumer’s needs with potential conflicts of interest to retain the consumer business with their organisation. 2. Areas of failure or gaps 2.1 Home care 1. Witness Statement of National Seniors Australia 31 January 2019 National Seniors research [1. Accentuating the Positive] identified clear gaps in home care provision, including care planning and coordination issues, the need for greater communication from providers, poor cleaning services, the need for more dementia care training, and the lack of respite and support services for informal carers. The negative issues in text comments, included: • Services being delivered at times or in ways that were inconvenient to the client Visits are not set for a pre-arranged time - only a specific day fortnightly so I wait around until the cleaner comes. This means I am not able to make appointments or go on outings that day. Some tasks are not performed at all. Following surgery, I needed help with laundry. If the worker arrives in the afternoon, it is too late to hang laundry, especially in winter, and there is no-one to bring it inside. • A lack of continuity of care for dementia patients and poor training for dementia care The constant change of staff visiting daily was confusing for my mother as she stated she never knew who would turn up so felt unsafe in being unable to identify them. When one carer let themselves in using the key safe she was asleep, and it caused her great distress as she had never met this person before the incident. She felt in danger and then told them to leave and never come back. Subsequently removed the key safe as "no stranger was going to let themselves in my house again". • The frustration caused by WHS constraints on cleaning, and poor cleaning services; The administration of the care organisation was excellent, but the people sent to clean and converse with the client were under-trained. They did not understand the care that older frail people need. For example, the kitchen and bathroom floors, the toilet seat and vanity the kitchen counters and sink were all left wet and very slippery even though we requested that they all be dried off, carers/cleaners called earlier in the morning than the allocated time. The cleaner/carer were always in a hurry and never spoke to the client. Mum became very stressed, so we cancelled the agreement and I went back to cleaning Mum's retirement village unit. • Lack of duty of care and the occurrence of theft There were a few issues; staff taking gifts from the client (valuables such as jewellery, antiques, plants, clothing, crockery). Frequent staff changes don't allow client or staff to know each other and feel secure. Lack of communication with significant others. Arrival times all over the place. Oldie left in night clothes waiting all day for a shower. Only takes a phone call to say, 'I will be late today'. When shopping feeling the need to purchase a meal or coffee for carer. They don't always decline on the other hand it is a lovely social outing for the client. Services often declined due to cost or paranoid about a stranger in their house. If stuff goes missing from the house it can be downplayed 'because the client had dementia'. • Poor communication from the provider, and poor administration of services generally There is no communication from the organisation that sends me cleaners. They are unhelpful and offhand. They do not ever tell me when my regular person will not be turning up and they even sent me a person I had previously had and who I asked not to have again. They are not helpful about time slots either- that is to say, they are very broad. • Failures in the delivery of Consumer Directed Care 2. Witness Statement of National Seniors Australia 31 January 2019 There are ad-hoc care schedules, with staff driving long distances to arrive at our home already exhausted. We have repeatedly requested for the same care to be allocated to our home, at least for six months at a time, this is still fraught with a lack of communication and demonstrates a business system that wants to complete the job and get paid, even though the consumer (us) are not happy to have random carers arrive at our home to provide a service and we are the unpaid staff members, orientating the staff member to what is needed, how to use our domestic equipment and monitoring that the two hours is utilised fully and effectively.