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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Tuesday, 9 March 2004) . . Page.. 909 ..

nurse to provide better links between hospitals and nursing homes to make it easier for people to find nursing home places.

Falls are a major and growing concern for older people resulting in a loss of mobility and independence and earlier entry to residential care. Falls assessment and management programs will be established in the aged day care services at Tuggeranong and the Belconnen health centres. General practitioners and residential care facilities will have access to more comprehensive advice and support to assist their older clients.

These are all very important commitments for older Canberrans. But we need to bear in mind that older Canberrans are a diverse group of people with a wide range of needs. Many of the social plan actions which address the needs of the broader community also address the needs of some of these older Canberrans: the homelessness strategy, for example, and the sustainable transport policy.

The measures in the social plan have been welcomed by people from across the community. Jim Purcell, chair of the Council on the Ageing, was one of those that strongly welcomed and applauded the social plan.

On the question of aged accommodation, the government is working hard to meet the housing needs of Canberra’s older people. My colleague, the Minister for Planning, released the “Building for our ageing community” strategy just some months ago. The purpose of the strategy is to ensure that the provision of aged bed allocations are made operational in the shortest possible time, and to develop rational strategic plans on how to deliver appropriate aged accommodation and care in the longer term.

Case management is helping service providers who have been allocated beds to get those beds either operational or under construction this year. The case manager is working closely with proponents to increase their capacity to undertake expansion, by providing a whole of government information service on aged persons’ accommodation and getting specialist advice on development issues.

The ACT government has made an undertaking to the proponents of the Calvary Hospital to expedite their proposal to enable it to commence as soon as practical. The supply of pre-planned, development ready sites is underway. Planning has commenced on sites in Monash, Greenway and Nicholls.

It is anticipated that these sites will be available when bed allocations are made, so that service providers can fast track their construction program. Other sites for adaptable housing have been identified in Fadden and Gowrie, and they are to be included in this month’s planned auction.

Section 87 Belconnen is being made available for aged accommodation through a competitive release process. Subject to positive outcomes of discussions with the Commonwealth government, this site should be available for development this year. As well, we are looking at surplus government sites for possible aged facilities. Again subject to the outcomes of the review processes, further sites may be available in the near future.

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