Carol Altmann – The Terrier

I received this letter from a resident’s family member last week, before Lyndoch Living CEO Doreen Power was stood down.

It’s only now I can publish this letter, without the threat of litigation from Ms Power.

THIS is why residents and families have been frightened to speak up.

And this is the toxic culture that the Lyndoch Living board has ignored and enabled.

Did the board know about this elder abuse by Ms Power? It should have – it’s legally responsible for resident safety.

And if it did know, why did it not apologise and immediately take action against Ms Power?

Ms Power, the board and all of the toxic enablers of this disgraceful chapter in Lyndoch’s history have to go.

Here is the letter:

“My mother is a victim of bullying by Doreen Power- one of many I gather.

My mother wrote a letter for the resident’s suggestion box on the 16th of May this year. I have a copy of the letter on my phone. It basically was a plea for more staff, and how unhappy Lyndoch is to live in.

My mother was escorted to Doreen’s office a couple of days after writing her letter. Mum had no idea why she was taken to the office.

Once she got into the office, Doreen was there with another staff member.

Mum was told in no uncertain terms that the letter had offended Doreen, because she thought that she had a better relationship with Mum.

She pointed to a stack of letters on her desk and said that they were all complimentary letters, unlike Mums.

To add salt to the wound, Doreen asked Mum if ” she still wanted to live at Lyndoch”.

The fact that Mum did not have any advanced notice that she would be facing any fall out for her letter, plus Mum did not have an advocate go into the office with her, is a disgrace.

All the staff knew about the incident in days to come, and kept asking Mum if she was O.K.

Yes, I could have put a complaint into the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, plus maybe even to the Elder Rights Advocacy, but poor old Mum is living in fear of being dragged into the office to face Doreen again.

And, to make matters even more severe, she has had many sleepless nights of worrying that she is going to be told to leave.

My mother has been living in Lyndoch for [edited]. I would like to see Doreen and her support group to face their own music and stop picking on defenceless old people.”

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

And so it continues…another experienced Nurse Unit Manager has taken sick leave from Lyndoch Living and is unlikely to return.

This means three out of the four unit managers across our largest aged care home have either taken extended sick leave or resigned in the past two months.

As of last week, the Clinical Leader in part of the hostel area (Swinton Level 1 and Swinton Ground) also took stress leave.

This means part of the brand new $13 million Swinton Wing has lost BOTH its Nurse Unit Manager and its Clinical Leader.

These are significant, expert positions in the daily care of our elderly.

As I have already reported, another experienced Registered Nurse working in the executive area is on sick leave, in addition to the Director of Nursing, the top of the tree, who has been gone since early August.

None of these people are expected to return.

In the past two months, an entire layer of senior, very experienced staff across Lyndoch Living and May Noonan has gone.

The board needs to ask why and then tell us what is going on, and what is being done about it.

These experienced staff are not leaving because they want to.

They are not leaving because they are disgruntled, vexatious, disgusting, disloyal or disliked, which is among the assortment of put-downs that are designed to discredit those who dare to push back.

No, these staff are leaving because they are no longer able to cope with being asked to do the impossible, with less staff, less resources and less support.

More than 200 staff have left Lyndoch in the past five years and the impact of that exodus of experience is starting to bite.

According to well-placed sources, Lyndoch is now shuffling the deckchairs, spreading its staff thin, and relying heavily on Personal Care Workers (PCW) – who are hard-working, but they are not qualified nurses – to fill the gaps.

In the case of the Swinton area that has lost both its NUM and Clinical Manager, the PCWs are trying to cope with 43 residents, including 28 dementia residents and 15 others, of which at least 10 are high care.

Those close to the situation are now fearful of the impact on residents.

“Things are getting dangerous and with COVID in the community, it’s bound to get worse,” one source said.

Another source said Lyndoch was “forcing out skilled nurses without thinking of the consequences”.

“Why are they not working with these skilled nurses to keep these skills retained?”

I am happy to be proven wrong and all the Lyndoch board has to do is tell you that I am wrong.

The board could pull out whatever evidence it has to show all is well.

But the board can’t do that, because these are the facts and all is not well.

Yet in the face of these facts, both the Lyndoch board and the Lyndoch executive remain silent.

So it’s up to the community – and brave sources – to put what we know on the public record so that neither the board or executive can claim they didn’t know, or didn’t believe, what is now unfolding.

We need to keep speaking up and poking and probing and questioning on behalf of the staff and, most importantly, the 240 frail and elderly residents who are among the most vulnerable members of our community. They are counting on us.