Tuesday's news
16 Jul 2013
Families speak of mistreatment, abuse and lack of adequate care in Australian nursing homes, media scrums await the royal birth and more.
Nursing homes accused of gross mistreatment
Families of Australian nursing home residents have spoken to ABC’s Lateline program about the gross mistreatments their loved ones received while in aged care.
One resident, who died one week after her family removed her from the facility with undiagnosed pneumonia, had also experienced an immobilised arm and great pain from continual botched injections, and had exposed raw cartilage in her ear from not being turned.
Her family told Lateline that her treatment in aged care facilities might have been more painful than the atrocities she had lived through in Nazi concentration camps.
Read more and watch interviews with family members, and contact your local MP or the Federal Minister from Mental Health and Ageing Senator the Hon Jacinta Collins to demand improvements in aged care.
Alternative therapies for vets’ PTSD
Up to an estimated 30 per cent of veterans in Australia live with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their defence service, with effects including insomnia, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and social isolation.
Recent US research is finding that transcendental mediation – the technique made famous in the 60s when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi taught it to The Beatles – may be an effective PTSD treatment, and an Australian study is set to run next year.
ABC News cites doctors and specialists calling for further research and caution, and urging patients to see alternative therapies as complementary to, rather than a replacement for, current treatments.
Channel swimmer dies
Less than 2km from completing a channel swim yesterday, 34-year-old British swimmer Susan Taylor collapsed in the water and died.
Family members aboard her support boat tried to save her life, but she was pronounced dead at a Boulogne-sur-Mer hospital.
Royal birth imminent
Media is waiting outside west London’s St Mary’s hospital for news of the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s baby, and the Brits are betting up a storm. Bets include what the baby’s name will be, when it will be born, and what its hair colour will be.
Watch the media circus gather momentum below.
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