Maurice Long walked into a government-operated aged care facility in Tasmania. Within about two months, he was dead.
WARNING: This story contains details of alleged neglect and images of injuries that may cause distress.
His son, Leigh Long, believes his father's life was shortened by the treatment he received at Beaconsfield District Health Service in the state's north-east.
"I had to lose Dad, due to maybe a serious blunder or mistake, so we've paid the ultimate price as a family," he said.
"Every day that goes by I think about my dad, I dream about him every night, I just can't stop reliving the care and the treatment he got.
"I miss him so much."
'Dad was turning into a zombie'
Since the passing of his wife, Maurice had lived independently for around 20 years and could walk, talk and toilet himself.
He had previously gone into respite care at a different facility and had enjoyed the experience, so decided to go into full-time care at Beaconsfield to be closer to his family.
Leigh claims within a week of being in the Beaconsfield facility, his father's health had deteriorated rapidly.
"There was something wrong with Dad, he was going downhill, Dad was turning into a zombie," he said.
"He could hardly walk, he couldn't talk."
Leigh was the enduring guardian for Maurice, meaning he was responsible for making medical decisions on his father's behalf.
But he alleges staff at the facility chemically restrained Maurice without consent, giving him antipsychotic medication risperidone, which can be used to treat behavioural symptoms in dementia patients.
"We were up there visiting Dad and it was quarter to five, and the nurse said, 'we've got to give your dad his five o'clock tablet before he goes to tea.'
"And I said, 'he doesn't have a five o'clock tablet', and she said, 'oh no, he has a five o'clock tablet. I'll go check on it.'
"She came back and said 'we're sedating him.''
Leigh said he'd learnt the tablets first began being given to his dad after one of his first nights at the facility, when the buzzer in his room was pressed 19 times.
He is unsure if his dad was pressing the buzzer button or getting out of bed and standing on a mat next to his bed, which would also activate the buzzer.
"They started sedating Dad with medication due to his undiagnosed dementia for pushing a buzzer 19 times in an hour," Leigh said.
He said he tried to stop the medication being administered to his father by contacting a local GP, Maurice's cardiologist and even ringing a solicitor.
The ABC has obtained a letter from the cardiologist, requesting the medication be stopped.
"Mr Maurice Long has been a patient of mine of over 10 years," it read.
"This 86-year-old gentleman's family are concerned about the use of risperidone for him and the side effects on his health. Therefore, I would request that the risperidone be ceased."
The cardiologist then recommended Maurice should see a doctor at a different health facility to undergo a definitive diagnosis and management.
Leigh said the facility did not follow his requests and ignored the cardiologist's instructions to cease the medication.
"It was a battle and I was never able to stop it," he said.
"It was shocking, it was to the point where Dad was gone well before he died because this medication changed him so much."
The family also found bruising on Maurice's body, including around his neck and on his arms.
A search for answers
Leigh wants answers about what happened to his father and the standard of care he received at the Beaconsfield facility.
He wants to know why the facility was able to start sedating his father without consent.
The family filed complaints to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and Tasmania's Health Department.
While Leigh Long is yet to receive an official response from the Department of Health, he has been in email correspondence with departmental employees, some of whom have apologised.
"I'm so sorry for the loss of your father and for the awful experience he and your family experienced at the Beaconsfield Hospital."
"I'm very sorry that this has occurred and for the way that your concerns were managed by the service."
Tasmania's Health Department told the ABC it took "all concerns and complaints raised about the care provided across our health system very seriously" and that the matter was being "actively reviewed".
"Communication is continuing between the department and family members about the complaint.
"We empathise with anyone whose experience in our health system falls short of the standards we expect, but it is not appropriate for us to comment further on individual circ*mstances for reasons of privacy and confidentiality."
'We keep hearing awful stories', union says of sector
In the last financial year, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission received 150 complaints about residential care in Tasmania.
Robbie Moore from the Health and Community Services Union said one of the major issues in the sector was understaffing — making it difficult for employees to provide care to residents in a timely manner.
"[Residents] are delayed in going to the toilet, they're delayed in when they get out of bed," he said.
"We keep hearing awful stories that no-one else in the community would accept, so why do we accept it for older people just because they're in a nursing home?
"We need to see the staffing levels so that people can have a decent life."
Since the start of the year, the national aged care regulator found six facilities in Tasmania were non-compliant with its standards.
One of those was the state-government-operated Lyell House, located at the West Coast District Hospital, which was non-compliant with six of eight standards.
The regulator identified the service as having issues with chemical restraint, including the use of medication on a resident for at least five weeks without consent.
It also found significant staffing challenges and a high reliance on overtime and agency staff.
Mr Moore said senior government people needed to be "held to account".
"There's no way that it is acceptable that in public-run institutions in Tasmania, that we shouldn't be meeting the national guidelines. That's a very reasonable expectation from Tasmanians."
Council on the Aging Tasmania chief executive Brigid Wilkinson said these types of allegations within aged care spoke to "a bigger issue" within the sector.
"We trust that when we need to make that decision for an older family member to receive the care that they need in a care facility, that they're going to get that care and that they're going to be treated with respect," she said.
"So, any allegations that people were treated inappropriately, or an instance of neglect or abuse, we would be very concerned about.
"It actually really disgusts me, because I think that every human being is worthy of being treated with dignity and respect, irrespective of their age."
'The damage was done'
Unhappy with the care at Beaconsfield, Leigh moved his father into a different aged care facility.
At that stage of his life, Maurice was unable to walk, talk or toilet himself, Leigh said.
"I had a duty of care to Dad to remove him from that facility, from that danger, because all my life he looked after me. I had to do something in return.
"I was hoping things would come back to, 'Hey, Dad's good now, we've fixed it'.
"Sadly, he died. The damage was done.
"With the facility up there … and the medication, the damage was already in place."
Tasmania's department of health said it was undertaking a voluntary statewide audit of its facilities that offered residential aged care services.
These voluntary audits are in addition to audits that are undertaken by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
"These audits include consideration of a range of matters, including the use of restrictive practice," a Department of Health spokesperson said.
"In relation to staffing, all of the Department's district hospitals — including the six facilities that provide residential aged care services — have a safe staffing model which identifies the appropriate safe staffing level for each of the facilities.
"A number of strategies are used to support this model, including recruitment, increases to working hours where appropriate, and redeployment from other services or sites as required.
"This whole-of-system collaboration is very common across the health system to ensure the needs of Tasmanians are met."
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