They're known as the Silent Generation: Australia's elders often have a reputation for copping hard knocks on the chin without complaint – but they’re also among our most vulnerable.
Key points:
- While the COVID death rate in aged care has significantly decreased in 2022, the number of total deaths has increased exponentially
- Advocates say not enough people are aware of the trauma still happening in aged care
- Residents are torn between fearing the outside world and wanting to be a part of it
It's because of that vulnerability many of their lives have been slower to return to a pre-COVID 'normal'.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Australians united to protect each other.
During the first two years, the country was devastated to see almost 900 deaths from the illness in aged care. That figure made up about 40 per cent of the 2,220 deaths recorded during the same time frame.
Floral tributes and homemade signs of hope were tied to fences of locked-down aged care facilities, where residents could only peer through the windows.
Some of those early aged care casualties died alone. They left behind distraught families, themselves living in lockdown, unable to mourn their losses together.
But much of that has disappeared as the world moves to living with COVID-19.
This year, the death rate in aged care has dropped to 3.5 per cent, compared to 33 per cent in 2020, thanks to vaccines and less severe variants.
But in terms of total deaths, there’s now been 4,000 in aged care since the start of the pandemic, including 3,000 this year alone.
In the eyes of advocates, not enough people are paying attention to aged care anymore.
Residents say the last few years have been difficult but they understand the world has to keep turning, even though COVID still poses a health risk to them.
The 'forgotten generation'
Eighty-two-year-old Rosemary Seam has lived in the New South Wales mid-north coast for 63 years. It's where she and her late husband Col, a pilot, raised their three children.
"They were happy times and it was a good place to bring up a family. I've been very grateful for my life here," she said
Rosemary jokingly describes herself as a "jack of all trades, master of none".
"I worked in the courts for 27 years. I did a bit of everything; I started as a typist on my way up and met some very good people on both sides of the law."
Just two days before the first national lockdown, Rosemary moved into aged care.
She said the years of lockdowns and restrictions were onerous but understandable, and that she remained hopeful the freedom she once took for granted would return.
For now, she understands why aged care facilities remain under health orders that can force residents back into isolation for up to a week if they become infected or are a close contact.
Public health orders in most states and territories specify visitors to aged care homes need to produce a negative rapid antigen test (RAT) on the day of visiting and wear personal protective equipment. Some facilities also require visitors to be fully vaccinated.
"Older, frail people are still very vulnerable. This is why these restrictions are still in place. Some people resent them but I think that's all for our protection," Rosemary said.
"COVID hasn't gone away. The feeling in the community seems to be now that the community's living with COVID, whereas in aged care we're dying with COVID.
"Regardless, I think we tend to be the forgotten generation anyway. And that's just the law of nature, I suppose, and the survival of the fittest.
"But we're still here."
The 'solitary cat'
Seventy-eight-year-old Sheila Dawson is a self-confessed "solitary cat".
Yet, even she struggled to deal with the isolation during COVID-19 lockdowns at a regional Victorian aged care facility.
"I was getting stir-crazy. You know, I thought how easy it would be just to give up," Sheila said.
"By the end of the second week, I was ready to … get out. I kept thinking of ways to escape."
Sheila doesn't have any family, so before the pandemic always relied on visits from friends.
But during COVID-19, that dropped off because of the complexities involved in getting into the home.
"[The restrictions] don't seem to stop family members coming. But for me it has, because a lot of my friends don't want to go through the rigmarole, and frankly I discourage them," Sheila said.
"I'd rather go out and meet them. It gives me an opportunity to be free."
But there's also the risk of residents like Sheila having to isolate if they're deemed a close contact because of a visitor or a visit to the outside world.
Regardless, Sheila does RATs almost daily, as it's a requirement at her home to test for three days after leaving the home.
Those rules are in stark contrast to how the rest of Australia now lives.
But Sheila believes she's luckier than others in aged care — many residents can't leave the facility now and have missed out on a lot of contact with loved ones.
"A lot of them need to see a face. They need to be able to touch somebody," she said.
"And that's why you see so many of them toddling around with a bear or a doll or something; they need something physically there to hug."
"There are people who have physically deteriorated, [and] mentally, I've seen some people go downhill."
'Out of sight, out of mind'
Throughout the pandemic, aged care advocates have called out the detrimental impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and isolation on residents' mental and physical health.
"It's not only the deaths, it's also the significant lockdowns and the confinement of people to their room," said Sarah Russell, the director of Aged Care Matters.
"There is still fear around COVID. We're all being told to get on with our lives, to live with COVID, but there's been not enough consideration to what aged care homes are experiencing."
Ms Russell believed too few people are aware of the trauma still happening in aged care and said not enough research has been done on how lockdowns and the pandemic have impacted residents.
"A couple of years ago, we were all very concerned about aged care because most of the deaths were occurring in aged care homes. It was a significant tragedy," she said.
"This year, the deaths have been out of sight and out of mind."
Sociologist Barbara Neves said some of this comes down to COVID-19 fatigue and a rush to achieve some sense of normalcy.
But Dr Neves said it's also because of ageism.
"Frail older people are often seen as disposable … as if it's okay or justifiable to really cut someone's life short because of age or because of where they live," she said.
Dr Neves said Australians needed to rethink how we cared for our elderly.
"Our duty of care cannot be seen as a cost or as a burden, because how we treat frail, older people says a lot about who we are as a society."
Back in NSW, Rosemary Seam isn't resentful about the world living with COVID-19 and said she's optimistic about the future.
"They've eliminated a lot of dreadful diseases from the world and hopefully the scientists are working away to discover a vaccine that will stop [COVID-19] in its tracks," she said.
"I mean, that's what we hope for. I'm sure it will happen eventually.
"We've seen a lot of troubles in our lives and I suppose we've survived them all and we'll survive this one, hopefully."
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2022-09-29 20:07:07Z
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