Page 3221 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 October 2022
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There is also a gendered travel component, particularly for carers. We know from the 2017 survey that picking up or dropping someone off comprises 10.6 per cent of men’s travel, but 14.5 per cent of women’s. We would not have found all of this in the MyWay data. We know that there are more women than men who are carers, and that one in five Australian women aged 65 to 74 years old is a carer. I am very much looking forward to the updated age and gender disaggregated data in the 2022 ACT and Queanbeyan household travel survey, and seeing it used to better plan for mixed modes of travel and for women, older people and carers.
We keep our older Canberrans informed about transport and many other important services through websites; targeted information shared through our community sector partners, including COTA ACT and ADACAS; and through newsletters delivered to letterboxes, such as Our Canberra. I would also particularly like to thank COTA ACT for their work on the Silver is Gold Festival and the Seniors Expo, sharing information with our community about services and ways to stay connected. This year we had two expos—one on 26 May, and a second veterans and seniors expo on Wednesday, 28 September, not long before the International Day of Older Persons on 7 October.
Becoming a more dementia-friendly city is important, with training continuing for Access Canberra staff, 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. I am very pleased to say that it is one of the best films Australia has ever produced, The Sapphires, and it will be a wonderful way to celebrate Carers Week. Canberra Museum and Gallery is also upgrading their access ramp to the Open Collections gallery to support people with dementia, who may have difficulty with depth perception, as well as a series of hands-on workshops for people with dementia to enjoy CMAG’s arts program.
Being able to tell our stories through the arts is how we make meaning of this rapidly changing world that we live in, and that is particularly important in recognition of the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has had on older people in our community. Providing $80,000 per year through the Seniors Grants Program supports community-led recovery and enables reconnection after long periods in isolation in the past two years. Applications for the 2022-23 Seniors Grants Program are open right now, until 24 October.
As I said earlier today, I will continue to advocate for—and this government will continue to support—the protection of those who are most at risk from this virus, through communication about our collective responsibility to care for those around us, access to supports for disability and in-home aged-care workers and advice for service providers on how to provide COVID-safe care, and ensuring access to antiviral medicines for those who need them and ongoing access to vaccination boosters for all of us.
Finally, I would like to thank the members of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing for their very much appreciated advice on issues impacting older Canberrans, and their systemic advocacy, which was evident in the work plan that they released earlier this year. The lived experience of older Canberrans is at the heart of
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