I have written about the Residential Aged Care Communiqué before. It is a great resource that highlights selected cases that have been reported to the State Coroner’s Office that may interest the Aged Care Community.
You can subscribe by email at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine with the communiqué becoming available online much later. The December edition arrived in my mailbox, well, in December, but I have only just noticed it. The download is below as it is not yet available on the website.
Being summer the December edition focuses on the health effects of hot weather and heat-waves on deaths in the elderly.
Download (PDF, 148.83KB)
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The following has come from a recent editorial in eurekastreet.com.au . I recommend reading the complete editorial.
The Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice, Fremantle, has called for a large ex-gratia payment to the family of Mr Ward. The 46-year-old Aboriginal elder and cultural leader died on 27 January 2008 while being transported from Laverton to Kalgoorlie, in the back of a privatised prison van. His first name cannot be revealed for cultural reasons.
The report of Coroner Alistair Hope was published on 12 June this year. It concluded that Ward died of heatstroke, and that the WA Department of Corrective Services, the prison transport company GSL (now G4S) and the two drivers were jointly to blame. The coroner said Ward’s treatment was inhumane, and a breach of international laws to which Australia is a signatory.
In a statement issued after the Coroner’s report, Edmund Rice Institute director David Freeman said the report confirmed fears that this is ‘one of the worst human rights tragedies in Australian living memory’.
The Indigenous News Updates are sourced from news and other articles from around the country that I have posted on Twitter.
If you like this post and what else you see on the blog please subscribe by RSS feed (the orange button) or by email. Visit my subscription page.
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This indigenous News Update contains more links to articles regarding the death of Mr Ward in the back of a prisoner transport vehicle on a 400km trip from Laverton to Kalgoorlie with outside temperatures in the mid forties (Celsius).
The coronial inquest into the death of Mr Ward was completed sometime ago. Here is a summary of news links at the end of this sorry story.
More links can be found here
- Croakey wants to know if media had any responsibility for Mr Ward’s death as did not hi-light poor transfer service http://bit.ly/luOXS
- Federal ALP release statement saying it is a tragic event. Release has a nice happy pic of Jenny Macklin http://bit.ly/2JwcDv
- Eric Ripper describes death in custody of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward as a great failings of the former Labor Government. http://bit.ly/xO4us
- ABC 4corners report on Mr Ward’s death and coronial inquiry http://bit.ly/C45y2
- ABC 4corners extended interviews on death of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward http://bit.ly/46vS2q
- Coroners report on death of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward http://bit.ly/7Q7lY
- 1000 people rally in Perth for justice of Mr Ward http://bit.ly/CqmSU
- Former WA minister accepts some responsibility for death of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward http://bit.ly/2wvqj
- Prisoner transport drivers defied orders in trip which Aboriginal man Mr Ward died http://bit.ly/OY4Lk
- Guard haunted by death of Aboriginal man during prisoner transport http://bit.ly/4tS1Ks
The Indigenous News Updates are sourced from news and other articles from around the country that I have posted on Twitter.
If you like this post and what else you see on the blog please subscribe by RSS feed (the orange button) or by email. Visit my subscription page.
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For those interested in Aged Residential Care the quarterly Residential Aged Care Coronial Communique produced by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine is a valuable read.
The Communiqué will highlight selected cases that have been reported to the State Coroner’s Office may interest the Aged Care Community.
The aims of the Communiqué are:
• To improve the awareness of clinicians, health workers, carers and those in positions of governance about adverse events resulting from systems failures. Lessons from past cases can then be applied to their own institutions.
• To improve residential aged care workers’ understanding of the coronial system and the work performed by the Clinical Liaison Service.
Each edition focuses on a theme. The September 2008 issue (pdf) looked at diabetes with three cases emphasising the need for system approaches for managing residents with this condition.
As well as exploring the Coronial inquiry there is also an expert commentary highlighting various aspects. So in the diabetes issue mentioned above there was practical information based on the experiences of a diabetes educator who has implemented successful changes in aged care settings,
The current edition (pdf) looks at deaths caused by pneumonia in an aged care setting. Pneumonia is usually considered a natural cause of death. However to better prevent these deaths we need to closely examine what has occurred in the past.
The Communiqué is produced quarterly and is available on the site or sent electronically to your email address. Subscribing is as easy as emailing racc@vifm.org asking to be added to the Residential Aged Care Coronial Communiqué list.
If you like this post and what else you see on the blog please subscribe by RSS feed (the orange button) or by email. Visit my subscription page.
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