Rest home-less: elderly anger boils over

By NICHOLA LOBBAN nichola.lobban@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
WANGANUI elderly who need care are deteriorating in their homes because they cannot meet Whanganui District Health Board criteria to enter rest homes or receive home help.
Yesterday at a public meeting rest home managers and owners, community volunteers and elderly poured out their grievances to National party MPs Chester Borrows and Jo Goodhew, who were there to discuss aged care in Wanganui.
One person after another stood up to voice aged care issues ranging from the effects on people from the loss of home help, to their frustrations with a needs assessment system that seemed to be denying home care to those who needed it.
Resthome owners spoke of elderly people being repeatedly put through assessments as their families tried to get them into homes.
They also spoke of a deterioration of many elderly who lived at home with insufficient support, who were repeatedly sent to homes for respite care after being in hospital.
Many elderly had lost their home help, despite the support of GPs and carers who said they needed it.
Many at the meeting criticized the WDHB for its treatment of Aged Care funding, and also the Government policy of Aging in Place, which they said was not working in Wanganui due to a lack of support.
Former Auckland resthome owner Joyce Rodriguez, now a shareholder in Springvale Manor, said she was "absolutely horrified" by the "draconian" assessments of elderly by WDHB contractor AccessAbility for rest home funding.
One man had been assessed seven times and when a Hawera social worker ruled that he should be in a home, AccessAbility had overturned that leading to three more assessments.
"There's no humanity in what happens in Wanganui," she said. The assessments were also "ridiculous", she said.
She also knew of one elderly man his 80s, unable to get up without help, who at an assessment was asked his age and his goals for the next five years.
Those who came into resthomes for respite care already had more than one foot in the grave, but had to go home again, she said.
She did not believe the situation was as bad anywhere else in New Zealand.
Sisters of St Joseph chief executive Kitty Moore said they were concerned about the difficulty of having elderly assessed to come into a home.
One woman in her 90s had been sent to Nazareth Rest Home for restorative care and the home was asked to teach her to make a cup of tea so she go home.
"It almost borders on abuse," she said. Quinlan Court manager Maureen Beard said the 15 independent residents were becoming increasingly dependant on the home's management and had needed the home care that had been removed.
One woman, sent home from hospital with ulcerated legs, had been taken meals and regularly nursed by staff, but it was a fight to get her into care, she said.
Marton community volunteer Raewyn Harris said keeping people in their homes was leading to hospital readmissions. "There's no quality of life keeping them in their homes it's quite a dangerous situation."
Former Marton resthome owner Michael Meehan said he had closed in July because of a lack of filled beds. He later told the Wanganui Chronicle the WDHB was placing "roadblocks" on funding people to enter rest homes but the need was there.
As elderly were staying in their homes longer, their health deteriorated to the point they eventually needed hospital level care and were repeatedly in and out of respite care. "There's people out there in the community that need the help, that need the care," he said.
National health select committee member Jo Goodhew said she had attended similar meetings around New Zealand had never head this kind of anger expressed Something was clearly not matching up in Wanganui, she said.
The meeting resolved to call a second meeting involving AccessAbility and the WDHB to discuss these issues.
rWDHB chief executive Memo Musa apologised for DHB's absence from the meeting but said it would go to the second one.
"We have been aware for some time that there is unhappiness in the community about the level of home based support being offered by the health board, and the criteria needed to access that help & it's a good time to put it all on the table and discuss the issues the financial concerns facing the health board, balanced with the needs and concerns of the community," he said.