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It's been a stressful summer for Lisa Caponio.
Key points:
- The aged care regulator received 45 complaints referencing lockdowns, isolation of residents or visitor restrictions in December
- The sector is also struggling with workforce numbers as staff are furloughed
- More than a quarter of aged care homes are still waiting for booster shots
Her 94-year-old mother, Caterina, lives in an aged care home in south-east Melbourne.
Caterina Caponio, who has dementia, has endured two lockdowns since the start of December 2021, with 10 days entirely confined to her room because of COVID-19 outbreaks.
"Day one was horrific," her daughter said.
"Something like about 15 phone calls I received … she [called] to say, 'Please explain what's happened.'
"And she's deteriorating; her voice is weakening."
Lisa Caponio is happy with the care her mum receives at Princeton View Aged Care but is worried about ongoing lockdowns now that Omicron is sweeping the country.
"Mum's been triple vaccinated; the home that she's in has done an amazing job to keep them safe," she said.
While the federal government funds aged care, and the homes are in charge of resident care, state-based public health units direct homes on how to deal with outbreaks.
ABC's 7.30 has heard from some families who are concerned their relatives' homes have been erring on the side of caution when it came to infection control, and were implementing ad hoc lockdowns or visiting rules as soon as anyone in the facility tested positive, which was having mental health consequences for residents.
Princeton View Aged Care told 7.30 it followed directives from the Victorian public health unit as required during the outbreaks.
It's one of almost 500 aged care homes that's been grappling with a COVID-19 outbreak over the past week.
The federal health department said the figure was expected to rise on Friday, reflecting the significant increase in cases reported in the community.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission regulator received 45 complaints referencing lockdowns, isolation of residents or visitor restrictions in December.
Princeton View's latest outbreak is over, and the lockdown has now been lifted.
The aged care home said it was working with health authorities on ways to balance the risk of COVID-19 with residents' mental wellbeing and quality of life.
Paul Sadler is the CEO of Aged and Community Services Australia, the body for not-for-profit and charity aged care providers.
He said the sector was seeing "an astronomic level of aged care COVID outbreaks".
But he wants new guidelines from National Cabinet on balancing COVID-19 risk with mental health.
"The way in which we've tried to prevent the spread of this disease has been based on good solid infection control principles," Mr Sadler told 7.30.
Joseph Ibrahim, a specialist in geriatric medicines and professor with Monash University, said Australian aged care still hadn't married public health priorities with human rights priorities.
"If this pandemic is to continue on for a few more years, then we need far more contribution from human rights advocates, from consumers, from residents, and particularly from the families about what works for them," he said.
In a statement on Thursday, Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck said two advocacy groups — the Council on the Ageing (COTA) and the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) — had been tasked with working on a national proposal.
"With Omicron at this stage appearing not to have as significant health impact, and with residents and staff receiving boosters, the aim is to provide an updated guide to allow more social interaction for residents whilst continuing to minimise their risk to COVID," the statement said.
'Groundhog Day' for vaccinations
Alfred 'Jay' Segall is 94 and has been living at Kewarra Aged Care in Cairns for a year.
Residents at his home had their second vaccination in April 2021, but as case numbers started rising in Queensland this month, they hadn't had their boosters.
Mr Segall's daughter-in-law, Brooke Bannister, decided to take him out of the home for his third dose in early January.
"To take him in the wheelchair in the middle of a heatwave to get his booster shot … I felt like it should have been done by now," Ms Bannister said.
"Two days later, we received a notification via email that a worker had tested positive in his part of the facility, and that they were having to go into isolation.
"So that really made me angry."
Mr Segall spent six days in lockdown as the home waited on PCR test results.
Ms Bannister's anger is directed at the federal rollout.
"The advice we're getting every day from the Queensland Premier, from every health official is, 'As soon as you're due for your booster, your four months, go and get your booster'," she said.
Kewarra Aged Care told 7.30 its booster rollout was arranged by the federal government, and it would have liked boosters earlier if they had been available.
Residents at Kewarra Aged Care began getting their boosters on Thursday.
The initial vaccine rollout was heavily criticised for being too slow to reach aged care residents.
The booster rollout began in November, but so far, more than a quarter of aged care homes are still waiting.
"I think the issue with the boosters is pretty clear cut, [it] is the responsibility of the federal government," Professor Ibrahim said.
"It feels a bit like, you know, we're Groundhog Day, or that we're just repeating the same mistakes that we've done before."
The federal government has committed to finish the aged care booster rollout by the end of the month, but some providers have raised doubts that will happen.
Mr Colbeck said the date that people were due for boosters had been revised by ATAGI since November, and the booster program had been adjusted to respond to that.
Some states have mandated the booster for staff.
The federal health department didn't say how many workers have actually been boosted, but said staff were receiving boosters alongside residents when they're due, and extra booster hubs were planned.
Labor's spokeswoman on Aged Care Services, Clare O'Neil, said there was a "diabolical crisis" in aged care at the moment.
"We need a plan here that clearly shows us how urgently aged care residents are going to get vaccinated," she said.
"But also, the people in and out every day, the staff that work there, can't be forgotten in this too."
Staffing levels putting older Australians at 'significant risk'
Like other sectors, aged care is struggling with workforce numbers as staff are furloughed due to COVID-19 or because they're a close contact.
Mr Sadler estimated up to 50 per cent of aged care staff across the country were being furloughed.
In 2020, Mr Colbeck announced surge workforce funding to provide temporary staff during outbreaks as part of a $100 million COVID Age Care support package.
In a statement, he said that plan was filling more than 60,000 shifts.
Mr Sadler said there still didn't seem to be enough staff to go around.
Ms O'Neil said the surge workforce was "a fiction".
"What we know is that many aged care homes today are not operating at safe staffing levels," she told 7.30.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended pay rises for aged care staff to ensure high quality care and to attract more workers, but the government has left the matter to the Fair Work Commission for a decision.
"We believe that is essential for actually getting a workforce into the future."
Mr Sadler said access to testing was also proving a hurdle to staffing.
"We're really urging the government … to fix the problems of distribution of rapid antigen tests, personal protective equipment, and make sure that we can get staff back to work safely as quickly as we possibly can."
In his statement, Mr Colbeck said more than 5.6 million rapid antigen tests had been distributed to aged care, and homes with COVID-positive residents were being prioritised for PCR tests.
A spokesperson for the Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt also told 7.30 in a statement that 3 million rapid antigen tests were scheduled for delivery in the next week.
For Lisa Caponio's mum and the residents at her home, lockdown has now ended.
But with an ongoing pandemic, fears for the most vulnerable remain.
"My plea is, please, at a national cabinet level, please review what is going on today in the facilities — be it public, be it private. It's irrelevant. It's irrelevant. They're our elderly people."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the federal health minister said: "Minister Hunt and Minister Colbeck have regularly engaged with the sector and are meeting with aged care providers and unions ... to continue to refine the Government's response to the current outbreak."
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