What we've been up to . . .          Back to Reports

June-July 2007

One of the most interesting, as well as significant happenings this month was the decision by the Seniors Sector to form a committee through which we can all work together where we have common interests. This arose from the decision by the State Government to move HACC services to the Department of Communities and put it under Disabilities.

This is one of the most significant steps backwards that could happen. It undoes much of the good work on positive ageing, elder abuse and social isolation that the Seniors Unit has accomplished over recent years and it certainly takes no genius to foresee the financial problems that will arise from this move.

Interesting to note that the publicity section remains in Health. Of course no one bothered to ask the Seniors Sector who, as older people, understand the ramifications and the psychological impact of this move.

The new Sector Committee has asked for an appointment with the Minister and the Director-General of the Department of Communities.

The new committee has also written to the Premier about the failure of the Budget to address action and planning across the board for the large increase in the number of older people in Queensland.

In particular, there is a growing concern about the constant shelving of action on community-based transport. This problem has enormous ramifications across the board, for rural towns without transport, and for larger towns and cities where there is little or no connecting transport.

There are bits of community transport projects here and there. It is absolutely essential that money be made available to allow the Department of Transport to co-ordinate and set up community transport across the state.

This is important for older people; it is essential for youth safety and convenience for young mothers. It is also important for the community generally so as to reduce the level of car use, by helping everyone make use of public transport which at present is difficult to access.

Val spoke at the elder abuse luncheon at Parliament House and many of us went to the launch of the five elder abuse services that have been set up to give assistance to those in need. This is only a pilot program and at present has no special promotional funding. Such services need two-pronged funding – publicising the service’s existence and reassuring the victims that others use it successfully. Many sufferers of elder abuse fear the family ramifications. The second prong must be a education campaign so that people are shown public disapproval for such acts.

Our usual monthly Forum discussed all these problems, and in addition accepted the invitation by QUT to supervise four of their student research projects.

Pixie Annat and Val went to both Prince Charles Hospital and Brisbane General Hospital and spoke with the appropriate people to further our plan to introduce volunteers to solve the problem of older people not feeding properly in hospital. We have been very well received and the project is moving along. There are a lot of things that first have to be addressed in such a project but there is a lot of enthusiasm.

We are ready to begin filming our police training video. This is an excellent project which should help to increase understanding and develop solutions to some of the existing problems.

Val spoke at the Relatives and Friends of the Mentally Ill conference on working with government systems to bring about change, and Mary Daly delighted ABC radio listeners as part of a panel on growing old well.

We held a Speakout for the Older Women’s Network and OPSO members on election issues. Shadow Minister for Ageing Jan McLucas was our special guest, and others from both sides of the House attended and spoke in reply after the audience spoke on both our needs and appropriate solutions.

Val was a guest journalist for Channel 10 following the Speakout and did a story on the need to address the issues.

The next day Val, Alan Hales and Maree Lubach went to see Kevin Rudd’s Policy Advisor with the results of our research over the last few years on the changes needed for older people, specifically, financial assistance for grandparents bringing up grandchildren full time, the urgency of an increase to the single pension, increase in rent assistance and mature age unemployment.

– Val French,
President