"Inappropriate accommodation and care support for remote indigenous elder"

A vulnerable Indigenous elder was flown out of their Remote Balgo community for a medical appointment to Kununurra WA approximately 800 kms away. An urgent phone call was made from the manager of a community business seeking assistance to help support this elder to their home care coordinator based in Kununurra with getting food and drinks to the elder so they wouldn't go hungry while staying in Kununurra, waiting to have their medical appointment.

Once agreeing to help support the client while in another community,the manager of a community business funded the cost for food & drinks to be purchased and this was taken around to the location of their accommodation and once there it was found the elder was in a shared double bedroom (one double bed only) with their carer of the opposite sex, and another grandchild also staying in this room, sharing the one bed.

This elder has poor eyesight, poor mobility very little English, anxious about being off country and no money. "PATS" put the elder up in the local hotel for accommodation where they were lodged with the family member (of the opposite sex) that was to be the elder's nominated carer. They had no kitchenette to use, they only had a kettle, coffee cups, complimentary tea coffee sugar any motel/hotel would have and a small bar fridge to store food and drink for the period of time needed to have medical appointment.

Firstly, the carer nominated wasn't culturally appropriate for this elderly indigenous person. secondly having the elder share a room and let alone a bed with the same carer/s is also culturally inappropriate and shame full. But in my opinion, to send this person without support, food, drink, clothing etc is unacceptable for anyone.

I understand Kununurra short stay is constantly booked but no one seems to be asking what needs are needed to be met for this client to be in a safe environment and have the basic needs of life provide while they are having medical assistances in another town for medical treatment/ specialist needs that can’t be done in the elder's remote community.

To add insult to injury, while being transported back to Balgo via flight, had its normal stop over at Halls Creek Airport to drop off and pick up other travellers, this elder fell and again, hence the inappropriate carer, is now in Halls Creek hospital with suspected broke arm with transfer out to Perth hospital for more specialised treatment.

In my experience, this isn’t the first time the situation has happen with inappropriate accommodation for vulnerable remote indigenous patients and just vulnerable non indigenous patients' whom end up with inappropriate carers not, as I understand it, caring for their family member but also lodged in accommodation that will not support them for their stay as they have to pay their own way. Yes generally I would agree with paying your own way but these older patients don’t always have the cognition at time to make the right decisions and are sent with the wrong carer who I believe abandons them to go off somewhere for their own needs and leave that person with nothing.

I have had clients sent to Perth for medical appointments and lodged in a hotel instead of short stay accommodation and they end up ring for help as they are hungry and don’t know when or where they are meant to go, they are scared and stressed and no one helping. I understand everyone is short staffed or limited access or whatever but, what if this was your grandparent, parent, aunty, uncle, I bet complaint would be coming in everywhere.

If this elder didn’t have me willing to drop everything to go support them, they wouldn’t have any food nor drink for 4 days. Again, it seems no information is told to these vulnerable people about complimentary breakfast with booking or where they can go for help. Letters go with them generally but not everyone can read, in which case, this is pointless.

No contact made to other service providers that could link up with the patient from remote community areas, eg home care services, social workers etc, once they get to the community/ town/ city they need to be in for medical treatments. There is a gap that these people are falling through, and in my experience, it is putting them in serious danger and this needs to be addressed urgently before something very bad does happens.