In the wake of the spot check on the Kirralee Residential Aged Care facility in East Ballarat which revealed major concerns regarding the nutrition and hydration of the residents, the following facts need to be stressed:
· Elder abuse is a largely hidden crime.
· Many of us ignore it – or genuinely do not know it is occurring.
· It is not benign neglect - it is abuse and constitutes a criminal offense.
What is elder abuse?
Elder abuse is any act causing harm to an older person and is inflicted by someone they know and trust. It can be physical, social, financial, psychological or sexual and includes mistreatment and or neglect.
How often is it occurring?
Like child abuse, the short answer is that it is occurring more than it should. Every instance is a case of someone misusing their power, privilege or position to hurt someone else who is more vulnerable.
Earlier this month AboutSeniors website surveyed site visitors to ascertain the extent of abuse of older Australians’ rights.
Survey results revealed:
· Nearly 12% claimed they had personally suffered from elder abuse
· More than 18% claimed a family member had suffered from elder abuse
· Of this 18%, 5% (or nearly 1/3rd) was claimed to have occurred in an Aged Care facility
This abuse was experienced across many different areas including (in descending order of occurrence) psychological, financial, social, physical, and sexual.
Whilst this week’s shocking neglect of the elderly in a so called “care” facility has concentrated the public’s attention on the potential for physical harm, there are many other manifestations of elder abuse and, from the survey undertaken by AboutSeniors, it is clear that psychological abuse was by far the most common.
Social and financial abuse is also occurring too frequently, with physical and sexual abuse less frequent, but still a cause for serious concern. If the measure of a society is its treatment of the weak, Australia is in deep trouble. We are exhorted on a daily basis to increase our commitment to the environment – but we seem to be able to comfortably overlook the abuse of our fellow human beings, particularly the frail and elderly.
Geoff’s Blog - Mistake on a mast
When Peter Garrett or Penny Wong blurb on our media about the virtues of Solar Power I have the “chuck bucket” ready. Have either of them a solar installation? A real one? I doubt it. If they had they would have experienced the total and utter unreliability of solar and wind where there is no back connection to the grid.
I guess that on the farm we have spent close to $70,000 for an installation using professionals all the way only to find that the equipment, the batteries, the exposure to the elements makes this a very dubious technology indeed. As part of our installation we had two wind turbines. Not only did they keep us and the neighbours awake at night, they became victims of lightning which struck at the very core of our system and took significant money and time to re-asses and replace.
That’s not the only thing. Over- zealous sales people (who talk more like religious fanatics than green-power professionals) sold us the wrong batteries for our installation, gave us, and recommended, an installer whose work had to be redone, etc, etc, ad nauseam. So P.G & P.W, get some first hand experience before you become such evangelists. The solar/wind cost per KW hour is something, which, if applied to a suburban household will have our beloved Kevin out on his ear in no time.
And another thing, as I was out preparing the mast for the new wind generator there was certainly no global warming, it was just above 0 degrees and the windchill reminded me of my time in the snows of Canada. So all in all, P.G and P.W for me, your credibility gets lower by the minute. It was probably not enhanced by my mood because I had to adjust the old wind mast guides to accommodate a new, heavier mast. My mistook. Grumble. Grumble. Fumble. Fumble.
Which, now I’m sitting in the comfort of the house at the computer, seems a little unfair (but only maybe) because here I am, taking out my frustrations on our elected’s who are probably easy targets.
And I am reminded of the parable about a man who owed a king’s ransom and who begged for time to pay from the monarch. Not only was he given time to pay, but the debt was wiped.
However, once out of the king’s presence, he saw a person who owed him a tiny debt, just enough to get him into court. Which he duly does and sells the family of the small debtor into penury and prison. This is observed by some of the king’s other servants and they duly report it. Where upon the tables are turned.
Perhaps I should grant P.G. and P.W. a little more slack. My green power frustrations are my business not theirs. I’m sure they mean well. However I do have a question of them.
At dinner last night we had a guest who works at a coal fired power station. He bulldozes the coal into the station. 25,000 tons per day. Assuming no CO2 capture or advanced technology, and being generous in that one ton of coal produces one ton of CO2 (it’s up to 3 times that), if Kevin, P.G and P.W set the carbon price at $20 per ton, that power station is going to be paying a tax to the aforementioned of $500,000+ per day ($182,000,000 p.a) to operate. What is that going to do for power bills? Is it my imagination or is the hoax on us because of some “ expert” scientists and the economist’s report?
We may all find ourselves owing a king’s ransom just for power and petrol to satisfy the government’s desire to lead the world in what is demanded of them by the global warming high priests who may be proven wrong when the ice age approaches in the next decade.. I somehow suspect that we won’t be getting our debts forgiven.
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