Aged care food service staff are being re-classified as personal care workers in a bid to stretch resources as facilities in the sector leave residents rife with malnourishment. Source: Yahoo News.
The insight comes after a study of more than 700 residents at 10 facilities in NSW, South Australia and Queensland revealed 32 per cent were malnourished and six per cent were severely malnourished.
United Workers Union’s Aged Care Deputy Director, Catalina Gonzalez, said the conditions were compounded by aged care workers in food service being reclassified.
She said this was done in an underhanded effort by providers to boost the number of care time minutes counted in line with mandated care time allocated to residents.
The Monash and Griffith University research, published in peer-reviewed journal Healthcare, called for an urgent screening program as many aged-care providers lacked processes to detect the issue.
Lead author Jonathan Foo said malnutrition was a serious health issue associated with a higher risk of falls, infections, hospital admissions and death.
“One of the problems we see is that facilities don’t even know who is malnourished in the first place, so they don’t even know where to start,” Dr Foo told AAP.
“We believe aged care facilities and the people we speak to on the ground really want to do the right thing.
“But there’s just not an understanding of what malnutrition looks like, and by the time it’s actually detected, it’s usually too late.”
The study is believed to be the biggest of its kind in Australia and comes three years after the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety final report found residents were being served poor and unappetising meals that failed to meet nutritional needs.
In a statement, the Albanese Government said it recognised the quality of food and nutrition remained a problem in the sector and was critical to maintaining good health.
It committed $12.9 million across two years in the 2023 budget to improve the issue, including establishing an advisory support unit within the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
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Aged care food staff re-class amid mass malnourishment (By Rachael Ward and Holly Hales, AAP via Yahoo News)
