23rd August 2024
Louise Salter
This horror show of a nursing home gives a fabulous marketing pitch, promising tailored and flexible care for your loved one’s needs in a clean and bright home-style setting.
Behind closed doors, the reality is so far from the sales pitch, it would be considered fraud in any other industry. Don’t let the beautiful smile and promises of the sales person deceive you. You won’t see her again after your loved ones first day anyway.
There are a handful of good nurses and carers here, but they are few and far between, and stretched too far. And if they’re not in shift, I know my Mum is going to have a hard time.
The care here is so poor, we visit Mum at least twice a day, to ensure she is fed, medicated, bathed and cared for correctly. Let alone giving her a kind word and some personal engagement. Despite our constant vigilance, this place still fails her most days.
I find Mum with her own dried faeces caked all over her hands and under her fingers, and also all over her backside. She develops bleeding nappy rashes, that they don’t find - I do, due to being left in sodden stinky nappys for too long. She’s meant to be showered every day, but some days she smells terrible.
I have found broken glass all over her bedroom floor, when reported to staff, I was given a broom to clean it up myself. They were unconcerned.
Mum is frequently not offered meals or her medication and we have to call for them and follow-up.
In the four months my poor Mother with advanced Alzheimer’s has been there, she has had multiple falls from being left alone for long periods in a messy and unsafe room, culminating in a serious fall that has left her unable to walk. After her fall, despite the Nurse noting Mum had injured her “bone or muscle” in her hip, Mum was left alone in her room for over an hour, standing up but groaning and crying in pain because the nurse said “she refused to sit or walk to the open areas”. Mum couldn’t sit or walk, not wouldn’t. No medical help was sought or provided until I arrived, when I had to request an ambulance be called. We spent the entire weekend at hospital. Mum could walk before this fall, but is not walking since, we don’t know why.
This place insists the only way they will deliver care, supervise or engage residents is if they are dragged out to the common dining and lounge areas. Out in these areas, your loved one will be left for hours in front of a tv or loud music. Residents attack each other out of neglect, boredom and frustration. If your loved one finds loud, busy spaces confusing and distressing, as many dementia sufferers do, they’re going to suffer terribly here.
Every visit to this place is traumatic. There is always an incident or crisis of poor care to be managed. Watching the neglect and decline and sadness of the other residents is desperate. I love my Mum, but I hate coming to this place. I hate what it’s done to her, she was a relatively happy and delightful Alzheimer’s sufferer 4 months ago. She is sad and angry and distressed more often than not now. I hate that instead of enjoying and loving my Mum in her last months, I have to be her protector, advocate and crisis manager. It’s beyond distressing.
We’ve given daily and weekly feedback to the management of Opal. They do meet with us and don’t push back on our feedback. We have seen occasional improvements, though rarely consistent day to day and between shifts and usually this is not kept up over time.
Sadly, I don’t have the legal powers to move her
Edit: Emre, your reply is disingenuous & cruel. Which of the above incidents do you deny? I’ve met you and your staff many times, provided pics as evidence & accepted next weeks meeting. Today my family, who you so confidently represent, told you again we don’t trust you & we protect Mum by our attendance at all times.
You are not a Care Community-that is spin. You are Opal, Australia’s largest billion dollar p.a., for profit, aged care provider. Your reply shows you care about your sales more than your residents. People need to know that before they put their loved ones with you.