A daughter’s heart-wrenching plea to remember the people and the lives behind the aged care statistics.
By Tara Bellwood
Bryan Blanchette was trapped in his aged care room for days, unable to see the sky and feel the warmth of the autumn sun on his balding head. Staff shortages meant the personal care workers were too pressed for time to transfer him into the wheelchair and take him outside. This was the beginning of what was to be one of the last weeks of his life.
As Australians head to the polls once again, aged care workers are out striking for better pay and conditions, hoping that this Federal election will bring an overhaul of the sector. The Interim Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care was tabled to Parliament in October 2019, but little has been done to implement recommendations with one-quarter of residential facilities reporting they have nurse or personal care worker vacancies, with timeframes of over four weeks to fill vacancies relatively common.
Lynne Blanchette empathises with their situation, having lost her father to what she states was neglect from the nursing home staff. She however doesn’t want to dwell on this, instead, wanting us all to remember the lives of the people that were lost. “I don’t want Dad to just be another statistic. I am comforted by knowing he, along with many of his generation, had a full amazing life that none of us will really understand”.
Sitting down with Lynne this week at a local café in Harris Park, she shared with me some of the stories of Bryan’s life and the memories she has of him and his wonderful life before he was brought into aged care.
Bryan Blanchette was born in 1934 in Calcutta [now Kolkata], India into an Anglo-Indian family. His great grandfather was an Englishman whose family had come to India in the mid-1800s with the East India Company to work on the British Railways. His grandfather married an Indian woman and had seven children. As an Anglo-Indian, he lived the life of a British child, speaking English, attending boarding school in Darjeeling, and having little to do with his family. “Dad never spoke much about India when I was a child. I however remember one time complaining about having to go to church, and he said how Granny used to make him walk over dead bodies to go to church as an altar boy when he was young.” Though Bryan shared much of his childhood in India, there was one story he told that haunted him throughout his life. “One of the saddest stories Dad told was when he said his father was angry one day and called his servant 'boy' downstairs to him. Dad then heard a gunshot and never saw his 'boy' again.”.
Bryan started sharing more with his family about his past life after he had his first stroke. Lynne remembers sitting with him in the hospital listening to him recall how he left India and arrived in Australia. He said he was getting back memories that he thinks he had blocked up all his life. “Not long after the end of the war [WWII], India gained independence from Great Britain. Dad was called home from school and along with his family, they fled India… He remembered being on a train and that he had run away from his family in their carriage. He looked out and saw a big statue in the fields. Dad was so taken by this memory, that we searched google maps trying to find the statue, but we couldn't. Dad's family then caught a ship called the HMAS Manoora from India to Perth arriving in 1947. I have since found there were about 700 Anglo-Indians on board. They settled in Sydney because they had family friends that were living there.”
Once settled here in Australia, the Indian heritage and ancestry of his family was never spoken of. “None of Dad's friends knew of his Indian heritage. At his funeral, his best man and friend of over 60 years said that the funeral booklet was the first he knew that Dad had been born in India. However, it wasn't just Dad- the whole family never acknowledged it. They just assimilated into the Australian way of life. The only concession to this was that Granny would cook an Indian Chicken Curry for special events, a tradition we have all continued”.
Bryan chose to enter an aged care home after his Parkinson’s got worse and a couple of falls made him scared to live independently. Lynne expressed that “He found a beautiful facility close to his home. It was large enough that he could bring some of his furniture, books, and favourite paintings. It had a little balcony that had water views. It was like his home away from home, and while he missed not cooking, he met some good people, enjoyed having more company and playing chess with a new friend.”
It all changed, however, after Bryan had a major stroke. After returning to his care home from a long stay in the hospital rehab ward, his daughter remembers him often complaining that none of the staff were coming to see him. “He would be left in bed until late, they only had time to shower him every second day, and he was not being taken outside to get fresh air and sunlight, which he loved.” From his stroke Bryan’s speech was severely affected, and many carers couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. “I suggested to Dad that we write a list of what he wanted each day and put it up on the wall where the carers would see it. It has been a while, but I remember it included things like that he would like to be showered daily with hot water, he complained it was often lukewarm, and that he wanted his hair, washed each day. He wanted to be put in the wheelchair and taken outside every day. He wanted them to make sure his mobile was always on him if one of us called. Simple requests that were too much for the staff to do. At least for some of them who appeared to find work too hard and complain to me each time I would visit. I raised the issues to the facility manager, but unfortunately, by the time she got back to me, he was back in hospital for the last time.”
The worst issue Dad experienced due to a shortage of RNs was with his PEG feeds. See, Dad had lost the ability to swallow properly from his stroke. He had had a tube inserted directly into his stomach, and an RN would administer liquid nutrition. However, there is a high risk of aspiration following a feed, so Dad needed to be sat upright for some time after each feed. This was probably the hardest thing for the aged care facility as they didn't have enough RNs. They were rushing all the time and started routinely lying him down too quickly after the night-time feed. I remember calling Dad from work in the morning, and I could hear him gurgling- a sign that he was aspirating. No RN had checked on him. I called an ambulance, and he went to the hospital and was put on antibiotics for pneumonia. He later died.”
The shortage of registered nurses in aged care facilities is significant. The Royal Commission into Aged Care found that almost two-thirds of residential facilities reported skill shortages. The main reasons for skill shortages are a lack of suitable applicants, with lower pay rates in aged care than in the Public Hospital System. The result of this crisis is the loss of lives, such as Bryan’s, and the devastating impact the loss of loved ones is having on many Australian families.
The Labor Government has promised registered nurses on-site in aged care facilities 24/7.. Labor leader Anthony Albanese has promised to raise the standards of aged care saying “We will mandate that every Australian living in aged care received an average of 215 minutes of care per day, as recommended by the Royal Commission. That earns more care for every resident. Every day. Not just for essential medical treatments, but basic important things life helping people take a shower, get dressed or eat a meal”. It is too late for Bryan, but for elders in our communities and their families, it is an outcome we hope to see.
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