By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Greater Dandenong Living Treasure has given powerful testimony that she is simply waiting to die in aged care.
Merle Mitchell – a community services leader in Springvale and nationally – appeared for the second time at the Federal Royal Commission into Aged Care on 10 August.
The 85-year-old was asked about her experience of Covid-19 lockdown in Waverley Aged Care – where visitors have been banned due to health precautions.
The Commission heard Ms Mitchell had only seen her daughter only twice since February – and only from behind glass.
“I was lucky enough to have a birthday a couple of weeks ago and I saw her then, and that was only through an open window that was two inches open.
“But that’s the last time.”
They keep in contact over the phone but Ms Mitchell prefers to encounter people face-to-face.
“But I understand why we’re in this situation and that we’ve got to put up with it until things change.”
Under lockdown, she looks out through a window at a brick wall. Her therapeutic masseuse and hairdresser have been banned from visiting.
She said residents are discouraged from visiting GPs outside the home. On Ms Mitchell’s return from a doctor’s appointment, she went into isolation into a “very small room without a window”.
“And I don’t see anybody except the people who bring the food in to me. So … it’s a real lockdown, yes.”
Ms Mitchell leaves her room four times a week for physio sessions, she tells the Royal Commission.
“Otherwise, from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep, I’m sitting in my own room in my one chair.”
She’d got to the stage of “accepting” the pandemic sweeping through more than 140 Victorian aged care homes.
“I know I’m here until I die, so every morning when I wake up I think ‘Damn, I’ve woken up’.
“But I’m here until I die, so I’ve got to make the best of it and that’s what I try to do.
“Which is not to say that I’m not being cared for, but I am sure if you really asked most people here they would all say they would rather be dead rather than living here, if they’re honest, that is.”
Aged-care staff “growl” at Ms Mitchell for saying such things.
“You must not say that. You mustn’t have negative thoughts,” they tell her.
“Well, they’re my thoughts and I, you know, I own my thoughts,“ Ms Mitchell told the Commission.
At an earlier hearing in May 2019, Ms Mitchell gave a lucid description of the “shock” of moving into aged care.
“There’s the shock of loss because what happens is it is so quick. There’s not the recognition of loss because loss is not just death. Loss is loss of your way of life.”
A Greater Dandenong Living Treasure, Ms Mitchell is an aged-care advocate for Council On The Ageing (COTA).
She is involved in a new RMIT-developed training course for care workers.
Ms Mitchell is a past director and founder of the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau (now South East Community Links), as well as setting up Springvale Neighbourhood House and the Family Mediation Centre.
She is also a former president of the Australian Council of Social Service.
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