00:00Every day that goes by I think about my dad, every day. I dream about him every night.
00:08I just can't stop reliving the care and the treatment he got, what I could have done better,
00:14and just see dad all the time. I miss him so much.
00:19Last year, Lee Long put his father Maurice into a Tasmanian government-operated aged
00:24care facility at the Beaconsfield District Health Service. Within a week, Mr Long says
00:29his father's health had deteriorated.
00:32There was something wrong with dad. He was going downhill. Dad was turning into a zombie.
00:35He could hardly walk. He couldn't talk. He was just zombie-type.
00:40Mr Long also alleges staff at the facility didn't seek consent before chemically restraining
00:46his father.
00:48They started sedating dad with medication due to his undiagnosed dementia for pushing
00:57a buzzer 19 times in an hour.
00:59Family members also found bruising on his body.
01:03All around his neck, on his arms, all sorts of things. Quite a lot of bruising. It shouldn't
01:09be there. We need an explanation why it was there. What happened to dad?
01:16Mr Long filed a complaint to the Tasmanian Health Department about his father's care.
01:21While he's yet to receive an official response, department staff acknowledged in emails that
01:26his family's experience was awful and their concerns were managed poorly.
01:32The union that represents aged care workers says facilities are understaffed.
01:37The impact for residents is that they often have to wait to get the care that they need.
01:42They're delayed in going to the toilet. They're delayed in when they get out of bed. We keep
01:47hearing awful stories that nobody else in the community would accept. So why do we accept
01:53for older people just because they're in a nursing home?
01:56In the last financial year, the National Aged Care Regulator received
02:00150 complaints about residential care in Tasmania. And since the start of the year,
02:05the regulator found six aged care facilities in the state were non-compliant with its standards,
02:11including another state government operated facility that was also
02:14identified as having issues with chemical restraint.
02:18There's no way it is acceptable that in public run
02:22institutions in Tasmania that we shouldn't be meeting the national guidelines.
02:27It actually really disgusts me because I think every human being is worthy of being
02:33treated with dignity and respect and actually that should be irrespective of their age.
02:39Unhappy with the care at Beaconsfield, Lee moved his father into a different aged care facility.
02:46I was hoping things would come back to, hey dad's good now, we fixed it. Sadly, he died.
02:53The damage was done.
02:56The Department of Health says the family's concerns are being taken
03:00very seriously and are being actively reviewed. It says it empathises with
03:04anyone whose experience in Tasmania's health system falls short of expected standards.
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