Category: Living well in an aged care home

‘I’d rather die’: the horror stories of aged care don’t tell the whole story

Troubling media reports have undoubtedly contributed to the government announcement of a Royal Commission. It is vital that incidents of inadequate personal care, negligence, neglect, abuse and assault are reported. However, we hear much less about elderly people who are living happily in an aged care home.

Guardian

Generation google

Letter, The Age

I regularly do The Age crossword with a delightful group of elderly women who live in an aged-care facility. These women have done the crossword for more than 60 years. For them, nothing is certain except death, taxes and The Age crossword.

These women have an excellent knowledge of synonyms that leaves me for dead. They also easily adapted to the increasing inclusion of short phrases in the crossword. There was laughter when we finally came up with ”trip of a lifetime” for the clue ”most remembered tour”.

However, the general knowledge questions often leave them bewildered. They had no clue who Andy Murray’s tennis coach is or who are citizens of Yerevan.

Rather than complain, these older women simply move with the times. They ask me to pull out the gadget in my pocket and ”google” the answers.

 Sarah Russell, Northcote