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Speaker 1: Let's talk about aged care and some aged care homes

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Speaker 1: slapping residents with additional services, additional service fees. I should say,

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Speaker 1: so you ask for a pillow, well that'll cost you more.

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Speaker 1: You want meals made on site cost you more? Is is fair?

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't have thought. Craig Gear, CEO, Older Person Advocacy Network, Craig,

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Speaker 1: good morning, morning, Matthew complaints coming in to the Older

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Speaker 1: Person's Advocacy Network. The annual report highlights this and it

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Speaker 1: seems successive to say the least a pillow Really.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and Matthew had forty four four and twenty eight

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Speaker 2: cases with support that we provided last year. What the

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Speaker 2: report does show, and that's twenty percent increase in the

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Speaker 2: year before, is that there's real value in engaging with

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Speaker 2: the independent Age Care Advocate and ARIS is our member

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Speaker 2: in South Australia and they can really help the people

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Speaker 2: resolve issues that they might be having. But what it

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Speaker 2: does say to me is that there's some things going

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Speaker 2: on in age care where we need a lot more transparency.

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Speaker 2: There needs to be clarity and communication on any fees

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Speaker 2: and charges, and we do need consumer protections for older people.

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Speaker 2: So it shouldn't be a condition to sign up for

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Speaker 2: these additional services before coming into age care. And you

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Speaker 2: really should be able to try before.

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Speaker 1: You buy, especially things that should be basic necessities. Now, look,

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Speaker 1: if you want to continue your habit that you used

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Speaker 1: to have at home of a gin o'clock at five

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Speaker 1: pm or something, we'll pay for that, you know. But

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Speaker 1: if you need a pillow for goodness sake, that's part

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Speaker 1: of the deal, surely. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And we did have cases where having the blessing done

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Speaker 2: by the priest is there's a charge on that as well.

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Speaker 2: So it's just really some interesting practices that we think

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Speaker 2: people need to be really clear about. There needs to

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Speaker 2: be transparency, as there is in consumer law for other purposes.

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Speaker 2: But I mean, yes, it's someone wants that extra additional service,

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Speaker 2: they should be able to purchase that. We're not against that.

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Speaker 2: We want those transparency and if people can't use the services,

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Speaker 2: so a person who's bed ridden not being able to

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Speaker 2: use the gym, there needs to be consideration of how

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Speaker 2: that's managed as well.

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Speaker 1: Okay, ensuring transparency. What needs to happen there is it

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Speaker 1: hates say does government need to step in because that

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Speaker 1: always seems to be the answer to everything, But does

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Speaker 1: government need to step in.

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Speaker 2: Look, the New Age Care Act is much more focused

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Speaker 2: on the older person themselves rather than about the money

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Speaker 2: and how it flows to the provider, and so that

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Speaker 2: statement of rights that goes in the front of that

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Speaker 2: is really important for older people to say, no, these

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Speaker 2: are my rights, consumer rights, human rights, and provider you

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Speaker 2: need to upholder those. We're also the bill also contains

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Speaker 2: provisions that there needs to be a process for having

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Speaker 2: this discussion before someone's signed up for coming into residential

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Speaker 2: age care. We think that's an appropriate protection for older

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Speaker 2: people and that those provider It's not about not providing information,

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Speaker 2: it's about not having those unconscionable conditions in a contract

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Speaker 2: as well. Again, it's all about transparency. It's all about communication,

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Speaker 2: and that's our big thenes three years in a row

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Speaker 2: is it's about communicating building trust between older people and

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Speaker 2: the providers.

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Speaker 1: Providers listening to that message.

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Speaker 2: I think they will, and I think that they have

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Speaker 2: been to give them their jees. They've been under a

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Speaker 2: lot of pressure with workforce challenges, but now is the

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Speaker 2: time to get on and get prepared for this New

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Speaker 2: Age Care Act and the Statement of rights. We need

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Speaker 2: to keep investing in the workforce. We need a really

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Speaker 2: strong pipeline of workforce in age care, but we need

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Speaker 2: people with the right skills and right attitude, the right

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Speaker 2: training so that they're engaging older people around what they want.

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Speaker 2: We would want that ourselves. We still keep choice and control.

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Speaker 2: We will also stay in our homes as long as possible.

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Speaker 2: We think all that's possible to do, but we need

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Speaker 2: to support the age care providers to train their staff

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Speaker 2: to do that as well.

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Speaker 1: All right, and the complaints you're getting over all, Craig,

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Speaker 1: so it Pillows I've mentioned. That's the one that I've seen.

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Speaker 1: What else is top of the list sort of thing?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for me, it is some basic communication skills as well,

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Speaker 2: which is things like if a person can still make

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Speaker 2: decisions about their own life. They think about Rosemary, who

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Speaker 2: I went to Parliament with a few weeks ago, and

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Speaker 2: she said what often happened is that they would ring

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Speaker 2: her daughter up and give her the information and not

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Speaker 2: give it to Rosemary herself. And Rosemary is quite capable

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Speaker 2: of making decisions and being communicated with. So it's those

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Speaker 2: sorts of things that we need to actually preference the

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Speaker 2: older person and communication and their right to make decisions

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Speaker 2: about their own life. Our advocates can help with that,

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Speaker 2: and they're available on one eight hundred and seven hundred.

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Speaker 1: Six hundred all right, terrific. Appreciate your time, Craig. Thanks,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Craig gia Ci Older Person's Advocacy Network