I have been working in the Aged Care sector for about 8 years now and have watched it change over time.

I have been a Care Worker in peoples homes and also a Team Leader organising the support referred through My Aged Care the government agency that is the first port of call to anyone requiring assistance to stay in their own home longer.

In recent times the ground rules have changed regarding the support given to care workers in the event of a complaint from a Client, Thankfully this is a rare occurrence in my experience.

Since new reforms have come into play to protect the elderly from unscrupulous practices and down right horrific behavior from some sectors of the work force there has been a shift to the polar opposite, meaning that the caregiver now has no rights at all.

I agree that it is important for Clients to be believed on all counts till proven otherwise, however we as support workers should be able to give our side of the story and also be allowed to prove our case.

There are occasions where for whatever reason a client will make false accusations against a worker or just be plain abusive to us and in the current system there is no protection for us at all.

Advocates are supplied to the client and without any proof at all these accusations are believed and at no time is there a thought given to how this may affect a care giver.

It is a huge responsibility to go into someone’s home and assist them with daily tasks, It also takes a lot of trust on the Clients behalf as well.

In my experience we place ourselves in a precarious position because there is no way we can know if during our shift something we do or say could later sometimes months or years, be taken the wrong way and find ourselves in the midst of a complaint.

I have also had experience with verbal abuse from Clients on the phone and in person while trying to organise a Support workers shift or just simply replace a worker that may have left the area.

This is not something I have any recourse over as things now stand, it is tough, just suck it up the client has all the rights.

I am writing this to bring attention to the inadequacies of the current system not to take away from the fact that I hope all Clients will be believed and have their case examined extensively, but don’t judge all Support workers as guilty!

Have some thought for how they feel, 90% of support workers are wonderful people or they would not be in this field of work and I for one have been extremely affected by unfounded accusations made by someone I thought was my Friend.

Just make the system a bit more equal and give us our right of reply.