James Nutt, 35, views his years in a nursing home as a “sentence”.
Lisa Corcoran, 43, hates living in aged care and wishes she could leave.
Life in residential aged care for people under 65 can be soul destroying, the aged care royal commission has been told.
A number of younger people who are living, or have lived, in residential aged care will tell the royal commission about their experiences during a hearing in Melbourne next week.
Mr Nutt will tell the inquiry the seven years he spent in a nursing home had a devastating effect on his mental health.
“He says he was ‘sentenced’ because it felt like jail,” advocacy group the Summer Foundation said in its royal commission submission.
Mr Nutt spent two years in hospital and rehabilitation after an assault left him with an acquired brain injury, before moving into a nursing home.
He had nothing to do.
“I’d be placed in a lounge room with 10 other people to watch the same John Wayne movie for weeks on end,” he said.
“You might make a friend or acquaintance, but the next week they’re dead. A 21-year-old should not be losing the people around them like that.”
Mr Nutt now lives independently.
Ms Corcoran will tell the royal commission she feels lonely and isolated in aged care.
She has also had difficulties accessing rehabilitation, saying her reduced access to physiotherapy means she is not reaching her goal of walking.
FULL STORY
Life in aged care ‘soul destroying’ for young Australians (7 News)
Young waste away in aged care (The Australian)