Hospitals and Healthcare

More can be done to stop older people from falling, says physiotherapist Melanie Haley, who used the world guidelines for falls prevention and management for older adults to analyse falls rates at her workplace. As a physiotherapist who works in the public health sector with a particular interest in falls prevention, I find the failure of our health services to reduce the rate of falls for our patients and clients an ongoing bitter pill to swallow. 

You’re worried and you want to see them well cared for. You’ve tried to talk to them about aged care but been met with swift refusal. Now what?

A shortage of aged care staff is putting pressure on hospitals, which are unable to discharge patients due to a lack of beds.

Health issues have kept pianist Natalie Trayling from performing on the streets of Melbourne, but that hasn’t been able to keep her from playing.

The alleged misuse of a bed hoist at an aged care home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs left an 84-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease with severe bruising under her arms.

As our nation mourns the Queen, I wonder who is mourning the anxious and frightened older people dying in aged care

With older Australians demanding more at-home care and nursing homes costing billions more each year to run, experts say aged care needs a dramatic overhaul.

There is growing concern that the thousands of deaths in aged care this year have not been properly scrutinised.

We studied 1,709 aged care homes over five years and found increases in the use of ‘agency’ staff impacted quality of care. Ahead of the federal jobs summit, the sector faces ongoing challenges.

Every death in aged care due to COVID-19 is a preventable death, says a leading expert in the field …

Affected by funding shortfalls and staff shortages, regional not-for-profit facilities are struggling to survive

Dr. Bob Ross cares for the aging residents of Ortonville, Minn, even as he wonders whether he, and the presidential candidates, are up to all their tasks.

Research suggests geriatricians more effectively and efficiently manage older patients’ care than doctors without such training, but low pay and stigma dampen interest.

Staff are employed to fill out paperwork, provide meals and assist with showers and laundry. This is what dementia care looks like for Australians who aren’t rich

A new generation of treatment facilities is aiming to integrate dementia patients with the communities around them, blurring lines between home and hospital.

In-person mental health care is hard to arrange in rural nursing homes, so video chats with faraway professionals are filling the gap.

Managers at St Basil’s, where 50 aged care residents died in Australia’s deadliest COVID outbreak, have lost an appeal to avoid giving evidence to the coroner.

Antimicrobial resistance rates are higher in Australian residential aged care facilities than other community or hospital settings.

We spent 312 hours observing 39 residents at six Australian aged care facilities to find out how and where they spend their time across the day.

Former health department chief Martin Bowles says staffing crisis will get ‘harder and harder’ and sector at risk of collapse