Peter O’Shannessy, 70, is battling stage four throat cancer. He had to go on a tortuous odyssey to receive the home-based care he so desperately needed. He started off with approval for a level-three home care package. This package provided him the funding to purchase a recliner, nursing care, and appropriate medical equipment. Within months William was living a nightmare—his health rapidly deteriorating. For him and his family, that sense of powerlessness quickly escalated as they tried to navigate the confusing maze of Australia’s aged care system. Approved for assistance, urgent help was nonetheless held up.
Months after his first evaluation, O’Shannessy’s cancer came back and he was pronounced terminal. He came home from the hospital in January, mostly without the ability to speak or eat after the 11-hour surgery he had. His daughter, Eloise Randall, vividly remembers the hope and urgency that characterized their situation. “Dad’s needs were increasing by the moment,” she said. They wanted immediate nursing care. Instead, they found themselves in a national queue along with 121,000 others waiting for aged care packages.
The Waiting Game
Allowing access to quality aged care has turned into a near-impossible race against time. Even as O’Shannessy’s condition worsened, Randall spent weeks on the phone. He followed this up by contacting My Aged Care and Aspire4Life who had originally done the assessments. In her father’s case, she begged for more immediate assistance. When she pressed for assistance, she was informed that help would not be forthcoming for seven to nine months.
“Aspire4Life gave mum and dad a reassessment date of eight weeks into the future, and that was the most urgent time they could get there.” – Eloise Randall
Randall’s frustrations were typical of many families, in the same boat, dealing with the same issue. Coral Wilkinson, an aged care advocate, highlighted the plight of many Australians: “They’re desperate. They ring us in tears. Some end up in hospital or a nursing home because they can’t get support at home.”
With wait times reaching skyrocketing highs, over 116,000 people across Australia are waiting for an aged care needs assessment. The median processing time for assessments stood at 23 days in the most recent quarter of July-September. A good chunk of the public is waiting much longer than that.
“People have already been waiting months. Some are waiting nine or 10 months for an assessment.” – Coral Wilkinson
The landscape is heavily criticized as the expectations for evaluating institutions continue to mount due to federal agency requirements. Janine Mason, a shot caller and fierce advocate for the culture, expressed her concern. She worries that these forces are resulting in the dehumanizing of the assessment process. “I think the assessments now are actually becoming dehumanised because of the pressure to get them done,” she stated.
A Family’s Desperate Need
As O’Shannessy’s health worsened, his family faced the emotional strain that comes without proper support. Randall told NBC that her father’s last few weeks were traumatic. “He spent his last couple of weeks feeling like he was drowning, lying on a couch that was unsuitable for him and in a lot of fear and anxiety,” she recounted. At the same time, her mother was hitting extreme levels of burnout from being the sole caregiver for her husband with no support.
“We needed personal care assistance, we needed nursing,” – Eloise Randall
That home care package was going to provide relief. At last, the family had received initial approval for a home care package. They quickly fell victim to the cracks of a system inundated with demand and riddled with bureaucratic inefficiencies. Unfortunately, O’Shannessy’s health condition deteriorated before he was able to get his urgent reassessment.
Randall’s experience illustrates the difficult journey that families in crisis must navigate. They are left to traverse a very complex matrix of services with little direction or assistance. She lost precious hours begging for care as her father’s health deteriorated by the minute.
Systemic Issues in Aged Care
The case of Peter O’Shannessy suggests alarming inadequacies and unresponsiveness from Australia’s aged care system. The national queue for aged care packages reflects a growing concern over how quickly vulnerable individuals can receive essential support.
“As Janine Mason noted, bureaucratic targets make it difficult for agencies to effectively reach those who most need it. “There are obviously KPIs about how much time can be spent trying to contact the older person,” she explained. If people don’t react to outreach efforts within specified time periods, their referrals can be denied outright.”
Advocates are aware of the systemic challenges they face. They advocate for reforms that prioritize the needs of our most vulnerable populations over bureaucratic convenience. Groups such as Aspire4Life are given extreme scrutiny. This sometimes leads to oversimplified assessments that overlook important information about peoples’ complex circumstances.
“I think there was some naivety on the part of the department and perhaps some of the newer assessing organisations who didn’t really understand the level of knowledge and expertise that is required to assess older people who have higher and more complex needs.” – Coral Wilkinson
