Page 3177 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 October 2022
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Becoming a more dementia-friendly city is also important, with training continuing for Access Canberra staff as an embedded standard practice and Access Canberra shopfronts adopting dementia-friendly design. The ACT’s first dementia-friendly film screening will take place on Saturday, 22 October, with support from the ACT government. It will be a wonderful way to celebrate Carers Week.
With the age-friendly city plan and the older person’s mental health and wellbeing strategy working together, this government has an ambitious plan ahead to address the social determinants of health and wellbeing for older people in our community. In addition to working on physical infrastructure, such as footpaths, public transport and access to government services, we will be co-designing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elder day program, focusing a lens on older Canberrans in suicide prevention activities and co-designing communication channels for providing information and support to promote mental health and wellbeing in older Canberrans.
We learned during COVID-19 how important accurate and timely information is for those most at risk from the virus, including the elderly, people with chronic health conditions and their carers. While we have announced an end to the provision of free rapid antigen tests for those workers from 30 September, and with requests for RATs having dramatically reduced over the past month, I would like service providers to know that we are still able to provide that support if it is needed. It is important that every older person in our city and every person with disability and every carer knows that we are here for you and we will do whatever we can to ensure that you are able to safely access the in-home care supports that keep you well, maintain your sense of belonging in the community and enable you to live a full life. For people on a low income, with concession cards, RATs continue to be available through our ACT libraries.
I have written to the commonwealth Minister for Health and Aged Care and the commonwealth Minister for Aged Care, asking them to work with the ACT government on the future provision of RATs in the ACT’s aged-care sector and offering our support to work with the commonwealth on reforms to the aged-care sector, including the implementation of recommendations to the royal commission into aged care. This is how effective governments work across jurisdictions, by offering collaboration, in a genuine spirit of goodwill, to achieve our collective goal of an accessible and inclusive society for everyone.
On Thursday, 4 August I presented an executive motion on continued COVID-19 supports for vulnerable Canberrans over winter. I was so hoping to have a real conversation in this place about how we encourage people to think about and act on the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on those most at risk in our community. I continue to hear from older Canberrans, our disability community and carers, for whom COVID is not over. It is not just our personal responsibility but, in fact, our collective responsibility to continue to protect those who cannot risk catching this virus. That means looking for COVID-safe ways to stay socially connected, such as catching up for lunch at an outdoor cafe instead of indoors, continuing to wear a mask when visiting friends or family whose health is at risk, and supporting flexible work or study from home or a graduated return to the office for those who need it.
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