Royal commission hears of red tape, lack of funding and cultural insensitivity creating barriers to care for elderly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Elderly Torres Strait Islanders are having to rely on family members to bring them freshly caught fish prepared from home because bureaucratic red tape is stopping traditional Indigenous foods from being served in nursing homes.

The aged care royal commission has travelled to Broome this week to hear evidence about the barriers and challenges to providing services for Indigenous Australians.

Multiple witnesses spoke about the importance of providing “culturally safe” aged care services. This included ensuring residential homes serve Indigenous traditional foods so people maintain their connection to country and culture.

At Star of the Sea Elders Village – the only nursing home in the Torres Strait – residents are able to look out at the sea from the “ocean room” which brought them much joy. Eighty per cent of staff at the nursing home identify as Indigenous Australians.

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However, the hearing was told the nursing home has difficulties when it comes to serving fresh fish.

“There’s a lot of regulation around food safety and then also regulations in [the] aged care environment which prevent us from catching and preparing local fish in our kitchens,” UnitingCare Queensland’s Tamra Bridges told the hearing.

“We have to buy imported frozen fish, you know, and have it delivered to Thursday Island, or we do work arounds with family and we’re relying on the goodwill of family when we do that, which is not really fair on them.”

The Tjilpi Pampaku Ngura Flexible Aged Care Service at Docker River in the Northern Territory, has no problems serving residents kangaroo tails.

“You can buy kangaroo tails in the shop and local people that have the ability to go hunting and also bring it into the residence but if it’s purchased from the shop it can be cooked at the facility and is cooked on a fire,” Bridges said.

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The hearing was also told about the lack of respite care on offer in remote and Indigenous communities.

Aboriginal carer Madeleine Jadai, 55, has looked after her sister Betty, 62, who has dementia, for the past seven years.

They live at Bidyadanga community, 190 kilometres south of Broome in the Kimberley region.

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“One time I had to go for a funeral out in the desert and I had to take Betty with me because I could not get her into respite care. And I couldn’t leave her with other family. We drove over 1,000 ks to the funeral. Betty got sick and needed antibiotics,” Jadai said.

“I would like my sister to be able to get better access to respite care. Sometime I have asked whether or not Betty can get respite care in Broome but I’m told that it is full.”

Jadai said in addition to caring for her sister she is also looking after her own children, her own grandchildren and the children of another sister who died in a car accident.

“Being a carer takes up all my time,” she said.

University of Western Australia professor of geriatric medicine Leon Flicker said Indigenous Australians are under-represented in Australian nursing homes.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people often do not believe that residential care is culturally safe for them, and therefore they shun it and do not use the services [as] much as they could,” Flicker told the hearing.

Indigenous people are exhibiting disability rates and syndromes associated with ageing up to 20 years earlier than non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“So we’re seeing rates in the 50-plus age group that normally we would see in the 70s and beyond in non-Aboriginal people,” Flicker said.

The hearings in Broome continue until Wednesday afternoon.