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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-14 Daily Xml
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Bills

Supported Residential Facilities (Aged Care Facilities) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:55): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Supported Residential Facilities Act 1992. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:56): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased to introduce today my very first private members' bill, the Supported Residential Facilities (Aged Care Facilities) Amendment Bill 2018, which seeks to have closed-circuit television cameras installed in aged-care homes in South Australia. This bill has been prompted by a litany of elder abuse cases in our community, culminating in the shocking behaviours against mentally incapacitated residents at the government-run Oakden facility, which has since been closed.

The mistreatment of the elderly and quality of care will be explored in detail in the coming royal commission, which will begin taking evidence in South Australia. Abuse of the elderly, whether a deliberate act or just through gross negligence, is a stain on our society and we must do more to stop it. The cover-ups must stop and accountability must be paramount.

One in two Australians will find themselves needing aged care. By 2056, 22 per cent of the population will be 65 and older, while the number of people with dementia will top a million. This means that there will be greater demand for accommodation to meet those needs. That will put additional pressure on aged-care providers and their staff.

There are 240,000 Australians in aged care today. We have a responsibility to ensure the best standard of care is provided to our most vulnerable citizens and that this is delivered in a safe and dignified setting during the final years of their life. We must ensure the welfare of the people that families or legal guardians have entrusted into the hands of care providers. This can be done in several ways, including proper governance, management oversight, effective training and support to staff.

However, as we have seen, even with the best intentions of management and owners of aged-care facilities, failures to adhere to proper practices have occurred and, in so many cases, with shameful, disturbing and unexplained outcomes. Defenceless, innocent residents have died as a direct or indirect result of negligence, mistreatment, assaults or accidents that could have been avoided. This is shameful.

Often, families are at a loss to discover what went wrong unless they decide to take the law into their own hands. Noleen Hausler, a trained nurse, did exactly that. Suspicious and concerned by the lack of appropriate response from staff and management about the state of her father, Clarence, who had dementia and could not walk or talk, Noleen placed a hidden camera in his bedroom at the Mitcham residential care facility in 2015. It caught aged-care worker Corey Lyle Lucas appearing to try to suffocate Mr Hausler, resulting in Lucas being convicted of aggravated assault.

Twenty years ago, I used hidden cameras to capture the cruel and hideous abuse that was going on in a nursing home at Beulah Park. I am so dismayed that we still need to be discussing the same kinds of issues today. If a camera had been in the room of Dorothy Baum at St Basil's Aegean Village nursing home in 2012, it would have revealed what really caused her brutal death, not the concocted story staff told police, that the bedridden and fragile Mrs Baum had caused her own shocking fatal injuries. It took an inquest to reveal that she was beaten to death by another resident with dementia.

If Oakden had been fitted with cameras, the systemic abuse from a toxic culture would have been prevented, saving families of residents the grief and heartbreak they continue to suffer. I will single out Mr Stewart Johnston, who is here today, Mrs Barbara Sprigg, Deanna Stojanovic, Patrina Cole, and Rina Serpo and her daughter Alma Krecu, who have been such a united and strong voice to make authorities and governments take notice and overhaul and improve our broken aged-care system.

Abuse in various forms continues to this very day, from a single and repeated act, neglect and lack of action, to financial, physical, psychological and sexual abuse. In 2016-17, the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner received around 3,600 complaints about residential aged care. Three per cent fell under the definition of abuse, but I suspect that this is just the tip of an iceberg.

In recent weeks, I have seen distressed constituents seeking urgent answers about family members in care. Susan Willimott and her brother Peter may never know if their mother, Debbie, received the appropriate level of care at a Prospect nursing home for a serious leg wound and whether it contributed to her death. They want an inquest.

Lawyers acting for Coral Green and her brother, Alex McEvoy, have written to the Coroner asking him to investigate the circumstances surrounding the alleged mistreatment of their late aunt, Barbara Sheppard, and her will being changed in favour of a home-based carer after she had been diagnosed with dementia.

David Kennedy and his wife, Cheryl, were told by a new nursing home proprietor that, despite an agreement with a previous owner, they could no longer use a camera in the bedroom to monitor the movements of Mr Kennedy's dementia suffering mother, citing the 2016 surveillances act. Well, there is a provision in that act that allows them to operate a camera if it is in the person's interest. The camera was not there because the Kennedys had misgivings about the level of care David's mother was receiving—they actually praised the care—but it did give them peace of mind, and on several occasions they were able to alert staff when they saw 82-year-old Joan alone in her room and in urgent need of assistance.

Mr Tony Van Vugt has written to me about being banned for seven days from seeing his brother at a facility at Largs Bay because, he claims, he blew the whistle too many times on poor practices he observed while closely monitoring the treatment of his brother following surgery. The ban has now been lifted, but with restrictions on his visits. All these claims may well be disputed by the care providers concerned; however, it is in instances like these that CCTV footage would be invaluable in either supporting or dismissing complaints.

Mr. President, it is upsetting to know that currently there are at least 10 aged-care homes in South Australia that are non-compliant—including St Basil's Aegean Village, which was at the centre of the Dorothy Baum inquest—and there are two others with sanctions.

Following recent exposés of dreadful elderly abuse on the ABC's Four Corners program, I believe an overwhelming majority of Australians would now support having CCTV cameras in all care facilities. The UK is moving in this direction. A recent survey by one British care provider revealed that an overwhelming 87 per cent of relatives of residents and the majority of workers—63 per cent—at care homes are in favour of surveillance, while oddly only 47 per cent of residents supported the idea. Now is the time for South Australia to lead the nation on legislation.

This bill is simple in its structure. It amends the licence conditions of the Supported Residential Facilities Act of 1992. It requires a proprietor of a supported residential aged-care facility to install audiovisual equipment in the bedroom of each resident and in the common areas of the facility. Recordings would be monitored by authorised persons or a body that is independent of the facility and the proprietor. This will ensure footage cannot be manipulated or erased. Cameras in common areas would need to be in operation at all times.

Importantly, in the bedrooms of residents, cameras will be an opt-in measure after all the necessary consents are obtained either from the resident or, if they are unable to make that decision, from persons authorised to do so by law, like guardians and powers of attorney. The costs of installing and monitoring the cameras in bedrooms may be recovered from the resident.

Any concerns people may have about privacy breaches have been allayed with the advent of sophisticated cutting-edge high definition equipment which I outlined recently and which is currently being used successfully in the UK. Twenty-four/seven monitoring is done by an independent third party using trained observers—qualified nurses and social workers with full security clearances. They monitor and document activities of staff and residents, incidents and performance in care facilities and hospitals.

Another advantage is it can deter and detect criminal activity, with the information collected used in investigations and any subsequent prosecutions. Monthly reports to care providers as well as families of loved ones are provided. The personal safety and wellbeing of these vulnerable adults is and always should be the top priority. Aged-care proprietors should not fear cameras but welcome them if they assist in raising the bar on performance and quality standards. They can be viewed as a positive component in promoting their aged-care facility to the public.

SA-Best consulted widely to frame this bill. I would particularly like to recognise Ms Hausler, who is with us today, and her father Clarence, for their advocacy on this issue. Maybe we can call this 'Clarry's Law', because without his public exposure to highlight the need for CCTV, future vulnerable citizens would not be able to benefit from this type of reform. Also thanks to Mr Johnston—as I said, here today as well—representing the families of Oakden victims; aged advocate Ian Henschke; and specialist aged-care consultant Peter Vincent for their valuable contributions.

In closing, it was pleasing to see our parliament yesterday pass the Office for the Ageing (Adult Safeguarding) Amendment Bill, a bill that will not only protect people in care but encourage whistleblowers to come forward without fear of retribution.

I commend the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, the Hon. Stephen Wade, and the Marshall government on keeping their commitment, and I thank all sides of politics in both houses for supporting it. I will remind the Premier that as opposition leader in 2016 he wanted changes made to our surveillance laws to allow cameras in aged homes to be debated as soon as possible.

Pathetically, and before the Oakden scandal was fully realised, the Labor government showed no enthusiasm. I commend this bill to the Legislative Council and trust that it receives support from my parliamentary colleagues. It is the least we can do to show our gratitude to the generations who shaped this state and who may need our support in their last years.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins.

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