Page 2994 - Week 08 - Thursday, 25 June 2009
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The government’s healthy parks, healthy people program is another example of encouraging people of all ages to get out into our great park system to help maintain their physical and mental health. This was a key message from the March forums. Older Canberrans said: “Don’t waste money telling us that exercise and a healthy diet are good for us. We already know this. Help motivate us to do it.”
The wellbeing of older people can also be impacted by physical, emotional and financial mistreatment. I am pleased to report that we have commenced work to strengthen the ACT’s elder abuse prevention program following a strategic review last year.
There is no doubt that the way we perceive our personal safety is the key to our community engagement and participation. This is especially true for many older people. I spoke earlier about respect. Loss of respect, as much as anything, can lead to concerns about personal safety.
Among the many issues raised during the consultations were concerns about safety at bus interchanges and the loss of the CLASP home safety advice program. We know that Canberra is rated one of the safest cities in the world. Nevertheless, as a government and as a community, we must work with older Canberrans to identify specific areas of concern and develop strategies to address them.
Safety, and perceptions of safety, can be addressed in many ways. Current initiatives regarding personal and property safety include ACT Policing’s safety at home program and suburban policing strategy as well as the government-funded vehicle immobiliser scheme.
Other ways we can address safety concerns include better urban design. We believe, for example, that the new Belconnen transport corridor will go a long way to helping vulnerable people, including the elderly, to feel safer when travelling. There are also plans in the pipeline to make the Woden interchange more integrated with the surrounding shopping precinct. The progressive upgrading of suburban shopping centres also takes account of the safety of users in their redesign.
Another way of helping to reduce many older people’s concerns regarding their safety is the fostering of intergenerational activities such as exploring ways in which both young and old have the opportunity to learn to respect each other through a greater understanding and appreciation of each other’s experience and perspective.
Just as critical is access to appropriate and affordable housing. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that access to shelter is a more basic need than maintaining our health and wellbeing. Public consultation has told us that access to affordable accommodation is particularly an issue for older people on low incomes in the private rental market.
We are also aware of the need to ensure that public housing stock meets diverse client needs and to work with community care providers for the provision of flexible support for tenants.
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