"Decision made without my choice or wish"

To whom it may concern,

On November 2024 I had a chest infection and was transferred from my home community of Dongara and Dongara Health Campus to Geraldton Regional Hospital. My health was taking time to heal and a Social Worker on the ward told me if I was not out of the Hospital by a specific date, they would be charging me $74 per day.

On this occasion I was able to go home. However, my next presentation I was told by the same Social Worker I would not be going home and they said you are going into respite and not home and then residential care in Three Springs. I said "NO" I've got to go home, and they said I've ordered the ambulance, and they are on their way taking you to Three Springs.

My doctor had previously told me that if I presented at the hospital again, I would need to go into a nursing home. I felt shanghaied!

I felt homeless and abandoned. I was in 60+ days respite and January 2025 made a permanent resident in Three Springs.

My health has deteriorated since this decision was made without my choice or wish. I wanted to be transferred back to my hometown of Dongara and requested transfer on numerous occasions without success. I was told by Dongara Nursing Home staff that the transfer list could be 2 to 3 years, however I know others who got in sooner. I was on the Blake House waitlist 18 months prior to my Three Springs admission. However, I am unsure of signing forms for this admission. I received in home supports that worked well while on the waitlist.

I felt abandoned by my own community after 40 years of living there. I have lost my independence and ability to make my own decisions about my life, when I have capacity to do so. The impact of being forced to the Three Springs Nursing Home initiated more falls and the anger I have felt has been kept inside me and has impacted my health and wellbeing significantly.

I believe I should have been informed by my Doctor in the Hospital about why I had to be placed in a nursing home, and I should have been able to go home to address my own home to prepare for such a move. When initially moved to Three Springs I was still capable of using my walking frame (4-wheel walker) to manoeuvre where I wanted to go.

This ability would have allowed me to pack my personal items for the stay in respite and allowed me to prepare for such changes. I have been in the Three Springs Nursing home since December 2024 and I am now settled in Three Springs, happy with the care I receive and the staff. However, I still may have had my health if I could have been able to understand why I had to go into a Nursing Home and this decision had been made with me not for me!

I am writing this letter and providing this feedback in the hope that no other aged person experiences the grief and loss and decline in health and wellbeing I have endured in this later and last transition of my life.

I have been back to my home for one occasion only, very briefly, supported by a PSA at the North Midlands Hospital, which I was grateful for, however, due to the rapid loss of my physical movement capacity, which decreased rapidly after the initial forced move to Three Springs, I have never regained mobility with my walker and am now transferred to appointments by ambulance, and unable to support myself to move from a chair or bed, let alone a car or vehicle to visit me home and support the packing of it so it can be sold.

This process has been reliant on my step - family to pack, sell and tidy my property for sale so I can afford my nursing care fees. I have had to grief my precious belongings that mean a lot to me and my life and let them go.

I welcome your reply to my letter.