Lisa moved into a nursing home when she was 48 years old.
At 42 Lisa was running a property development company as well as running around after 4 children. She had previously been diagnosed with MS but it had accelerated due to the stress of her marriage breakdown. Lisa was in her late 40s when she had a fall at home and was in hospital for 2 months. Her house couldn’t be modified so she was moved to aged care.
When Lisa was in rehab she was still going to exercise classes and walking with the support of a walker. But when she went into aged care she was not permitted to use her walker and her health declined.
“It’s like you have had a whole part of you stolen, like having your arm taken.”
Lisa was diagnosed with depression after she entered aged care and felt she’d been stripped of her independence.
“They think they’re helping you but they are stripping you of your independence, bit by bit you lose more and more.”
Lisa now lives independently in her SDA home in the city, living life how she chooses.
“It isn’t living, it is existing. You are told what to do…when to go to bed, what to eat, that isn’t life. It affects the person that I am.”
Read and watch more stories from young people who lived in aged care
