Audit of Residential Facilities, Final report - Division for Social Policy ...

towards their conditions of employment (low salaries and bad working conditions). This made itdifficult for the audit team to assess in a 2-day visit, with limited access to people, the realsituations in these homes. At times we were able to verify information through studying variousdocuments but, often this did not give a clear sense of what the actual practice was in a home. Itwas also very clear in many instances that the homes were „prepared‟ for the audit, the placewas cleaned, the residents were groomed and very often the different teams were briefed in aparticular way.The distribution of old age residential facilities is disproportionate in the wealthier provinces ofGauteng and the Western Cape, with a distinct lack of facilities in poorer provinces such asLimpopo, Eastern Cape and Free State. Owing to out-migration and urbanisation amongstyounger persons, older persons are disproportionately represented in the most rural and poorestprovinces of the country. At the same time the audit found that the majority of facilities (79%) areconcentrated in metropolitan formal areas or small urban formal areas. Only 5% are in informalor squatter areas while 16% are in rural areas.The audit found that the key service providers that run large proportions of these facilities arebigger NGOs and in some outlying areas smaller FBOs or CBOs. In addition to providing frailcare accommodation and assisted living facilities, such organisations homes provide home helpand meals on wheels and they facilitate support groups and luncheon clubs. The bigger NGOsusually have a number of homes affiliated to them.The findings of this study demonstrated that the majority of homes were not in a position tocomply with the norms and standards in its current form. Most of the homes were of the view thatthey would require a huge financial investment in order to comply with the letter as noted in thenorms and standards.Based on the findings of the study an attempt was made to identify those homes that requiredurgent intervention. This was arrived at by observations of the fieldworkers where they wereasked to rate their visual impression of each facility – does it leave a good impression or is it in astate of neglect and in need of maintenance and repair, as well as other issues such as whetherthe home offered 24 hour care and support, did a doctor or nurse visit the facility, did the facilityhave a policy to deal with abuse, did the facility have emergency procedures and finally how thestaff rated the facility.5 | D S D A u d i t o f R e s i d e n t i a l F a c i l i t i e s