Page 3702 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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because ACTION is really the only alternative to driving that currently exists in the territory.
What can be done to mitigate the challenges being faced by older citizens in relation to their mobility? Real solutions will exist in finding the most effective ways for older citizens to maintain their independence and mobility so that they can access essential services, shops and medical care on their own terms. Dr Dinh-Zarr suggested some very simple and straightforward ways by which, in the short term, conditions can be improved. She believes that good, clear signage and lighting can save people from accidents on the road. Likewise, relatively low-cost improvements such as identifying and modifying dangerous intersections can help road safety.
But there are general measures. A more targeted solution that was canvassed in the US has been CarFit, which was established through collaboration between the American Society of Ageing, the American Occupational Therapy Association and the AAA, the American Automobile Association. The CarFit program is designed to give the older driver a comprehensive check on how well the driver and the car work together. A trained professional would ask the older driver some simple questions to complete a 12-point CarFit checklist for comfort and safety. This would include such measures as ensuring that there is a clear line of sight over the steering wheel, plenty of room between the front airbag and the steering wheel and a seatbelt that holds the driver in a proper position while the car remains comfortable to drive.
A report being compiled by COTA includes recommendations that are most relevant for the ACT. They include linking frailty, health and fitness to road safety, developing an older persons road safety strategy plan, trialling a transport options adviser and looking at developing an older travel refresher program. These ideas, in my view, are a good first step. I strongly believe that society has a responsibility to put in place the practical and user-friendly infrastructure that older citizens need to get around their local community. We need to take a bipartisan approach in finding the best methods of guaranteeing seniors mobility around Canberra.
I sincerely hope that the ACT government takes these issues seriously enough to work with me, as the opposition spokesman on ageing, to find the right solutions to these pressing community concerns.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Minister for Health, Minister for Disability and Community Services and Minister for Women) (3.48): I thank Mr Mulcahy for bringing this matter of public importance to the Assembly today. As minister for ageing here in the ACT I would be very happy to work cooperatively, as I try to do with all members of the Assembly, to address issues relevant to people’s or members’ interests and portfolio responsibilities.
The ACT government is committed to ensuring that Canberra’s older citizens live in a society where people of all ages and abilities and from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are valued for their contribution, respected, included and encouraged to reach their full potential and to share in the benefits of our local community.
Mobility is a critical issue for all Canberrans, and particularly for our older citizens, as Mr Mulcahy has pointed out. In this context mobility is much more than just an ability to
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