Many couples living in Australian residential aged care are unable to have normal sexual relationships because of systemic and unnecessary surveillance and illegal breaches of their privacy, a study from the University of New England has found.
Vehement opposition from religious conservatives means parliaments have failed to strengthen legislation that protects the rights of elderly citizens, according to the study to be published this month in the journal Elder Law Review.
“Couples may be separated or provided with single beds only, unable to push them together,” the paper says.
“Staff frequently enter without knocking, commonly ignore ‘do not disturb’ signs and often gossip about residents. Some Australian aged-care facilities will still segregate sexes, including married couples, and many ignore the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and interest residents.”
The lead author of the paper, from the university’s school of behavioural, cognitive and social sciences, Alison Rahn, said facilities often went too far in their attempts to prevent elder abuse in aged care.
There was no mandatory staff training about how to respect and respond to consensual sexual relationships between residents.
“The charter of residents rights was instituted in the late 1980s and the original version protected the sexual rights of residents,” Rahn said.
“But the Catholic church made sure that was expunged. However, the charter still says their privacy must be respected and they have the right to socialise with whoever they choose and to take risks.
“You could read into that to say residents have the right to have their relationships protected, but the reality is much different in most facilities, which are commonly run by religious institutions and charities.”
The paper calls for specific human rights legislation for older Australians, a measure advocated for by the Australian Human Rights Commission, and for the Aged Care Act to be strengthened to protect couples entering aged care together and those who form relationships after entering aged care.
Rahn’s research is based on existing reports and studies, interviews with people working in the aged care sector, and 170 responses to an anonymous online survey asking people about their aged-care experiences.
“I’m stunned that in this day and age we have draconian practices you would expect to see in 18th century England,” she said.
“In some facilities, and I stress only some, a bathing method that has become popular for efficiency reasons is wheeling a trolley into a resident’s room, stripping them naked, placing them stark naked in a kiddies bathing pool on top of the trolley, and hosing them down, sometimes in front of other people.
“I’m astounded to hear these things. Some people who are asked to work in aged care facilities may be coming from backgrounds where they are very demure and conservative about sexuality, and these same people are being asked to wash and bathe people. They get the shock of their lives if they walk in on residents having a sexual experience.”
She also knew of institutions where the policy was for residents’ doors to be open at all times.
Rooms in aged-care facilities needed to be built large enough to allow for double beds, she said, and institutionalised separation of couples once they entered aged care should be stopped.
Councils on the Ageing chief executive, Ian Yates, said the process of giving bed licences and funding to providers should also be stopped. Instead, consumers should have the right to choose where their residential care funding is allocated, and to move it if they are unhappy.
“That way, people can put their money towards providers with a track record of providing privacy and respect, and those facilities will have the funding to expand, while other less ethical providers will go out of business,” he said.
“We will see a lot more respect given to consumers that way, and this has actually been recommended by the Productivity Commission already.”
Privacy was an ongoing issue for people in aged care, Yates said. But a significant cultural shift was needed to improve their treatment.
“In our society we tend to infantilise older people and the notion of sexuality among many old people is something that many younger people find embarrassing to contemplate and talk about,” he said.
“But living in residential facilities you’re supposed to be afforded the same respect you’d get in your own home. Facilities failing to cater for couples is a continuing complaint in the sector.
“But unless someone is clearly at risk, what they’re doing with their time is their business.”
