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FINGAL HEAD, SYDNEY, NSW / Australia.TO / 24x7 News / March 7, 2009
Will the pension alone ensure our elderly are living with dignity?
With the Harmer Review into the single aged pension handed to Federal Government last week, is
Population Ageing set to become the political football de jour?
Recently
The Australian reported (16.2.09) that the Federal Government has received 10 times more applications than there are provisions for home care for the elderly.
One day later, the
Australian Financial Review reported (17.2.09) that the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission is calling for an overhaul of funding to aged care operators to enhance competition.
In pre-budget Canberra
Tony Abbott, who earlier in the month participated in a debate about euthanasia with Senator Bob Brown and Dr Philip Nitschke, has warned of the economic burden of increasing the single aged pension (19.2.09).
Population ageing demands new and effective solutions and strategies from policy makers, communities and service providers. If it “takes a village” to raise a child then it takes that same village to care for our elderly, to help them live and help them die with dignity.
Within 50 years one quarter of Australia’s population will be over the age of 65. That's 10 million people in crisis. Many of our elderly are already isolated, disenfranchised and invisible.
How will we cope as this situation intensifies?
Demographic change impacts upon our economic and health systems, and also changes our family, community and friendship structures. It will forever impact on the media and products we consume, and our attitudes to work, sexuality, and leisure.
The situation is more critical in Tasmania with the most rapidly ageing population of all the states.
Soon, 6 in every 10 Tasmanians will be over the age of 65. This becomes proportionately worse given that over the next ten years Tasmania will lose the equivalent of 3 primary schools worth of young people per annum.
Big hART’s “This Is Living” project asks serious questions about these issues and takes a culture-lead approach to provide the innovation we need to deal with the realities of an ageing population.
This Is Living is Tasmania’s largest group of its kind, with 301 people, across
generations, working around Tasmania to end the invisibility and isolation of the elderly and to build a culture of cross community care.
This Is Living is finding local solutions to the challenges that are at the heart of the health, social and economic concerns our governments and service providers are grappling with.
For almost two years, the project has been bringing seniors and young people together to work on specific tasks and workshops in nursing homes, skate parks and community centres. As advocates for the elderly, young people are spending time with the elders in their communities, enquiring into their histories, and asking the question, “What is living?”
They are prompting discussion around quality of life for the keepers of the communities’ memories, and where and how our elderly would prefer to spend their closing years, months and days.
Big hART's track record has seen 17 years of delivering on the ground results through culture-lead programs and This Is Living is no exception. So far this group of 301 ordinary people have together been:
• Reducing the fear of crime amongst the elderly;
• Building social inclusion for those on the margins
• Growing the pool of informal carers.
• Contributing to positive mental health for both the old and young.
Nolma Hadfield from Glenorchy is 71 years old and when her husband passed away a few years ago, she was lost and her children became worried about her increasing isolation. Nolma has been part of This Is Living since August last year and says:
“I’m being me and to hell with tomorrow……I'll try something new each year and I’m going to keep going like this until I’m 85 and then I’ll have another think about it.”
The culmination of This Is Living project is a new large-scale production, premiering for Ten Days on the Island, Tasmania’s prestigious international festival of arts and culture.
Written and directed by Scott Rankin, the production stars 3 of Australia’s elder stately actors Anne Grigg, Lex Marinos and Bruce Myles, who are joined on stage by representatives of the communities’ seniors as well as skaters who add their kinetic ability to this intricate tapestry.
From today young and old participants and the Big hART team are working in Wynyard to finess their work. The performance piece highlights issues faced by older members of the community. A dark comedy, it weaves together the complexities of life and love, and of the right to live and the right to die, through the lens of a life-long secret ménage-a-trois, a fatal car crash, and the front-page tabloid photographs from the many esteemed local newspapers.
The show is just the tip of the iceberg. As teenage participant Brooke Harrison said: "WOW, I CAN"T WAIT TO GET OLD! THEY ARE AWESOME".
Email news@australia.to
Copyright © 2008
Australia.TO
Big hART’s “This Is Living” project asks serious questions about these issues and takes a culture-lead approach to provide the innovation we need to deal with the realities of an ageing population.
This Is Living is Tasmania’s largest group of its kind, with 301 people, across
generations, working around Tasmania to end the invisibility and isolation of the elderly and to build a culture of cross community care.
This Is Living is finding local solutions to the challenges that are at the heart of the health, social and economic concerns our governments and service providers are grappling with.
For almost two years, the project has been bringing seniors and young people together to work on specific tasks and workshops in nursing homes, skate parks and community centres. As advocates for the elderly, young people are spending time with the elders in their communities, enquiring into their histories, and asking the question, “What is living?”
They are prompting discussion around quality of life for the keepers of the communities’ memories, and where and how our elderly would prefer to spend their closing years, months and days.
Big hART's track record has seen 17 years of delivering on the ground results through culture-lead programs and This Is Living is no exception. So far this group of 301 ordinary people have together been:
• Reducing the fear of crime amongst the elderly;
• Building social inclusion for those on the margins
• Growing the pool of informal carers.
• Contributing to positive mental health for both the old and young.
Nolma Hadfield from Glenorchy is 71 years old and when her husband passed away a few years ago, she was lost and her children became worried about her increasing isolation. Nolma has been part of This Is Living since August last year and says:
“I’m being me and to hell with tomorrow……I'll try something new each year and I’m going to keep going like this until I’m 85 and then I’ll have another think about it.”
The culmination of This Is Living project is a new large-scale production, premiering for Ten Days on the Island, Tasmania’s prestigious international festival of arts and culture.
Written and directed by Scott Rankin, the production stars 3 of Australia’s elder stately actors Anne Grigg, Lex Marinos and Bruce Myles, who are joined on stage by representatives of the communities’ seniors as well as skaters who add their kinetic ability to this intricate tapestry.
From today young and old participants and the Big hART team are working in Wynyard to finess their work. The performance piece highlights issues faced by older members of the community. A dark comedy, it weaves together the complexities of life and love, and of the right to live and the right to die, through the lens of a life-long secret ménage-a-trois, a fatal car crash, and the front-page tabloid photographs from the many esteemed local newspapers.
The show is just the tip of the iceberg. As teenage participant Brooke Harrison said: "WOW, I CAN"T WAIT TO GET OLD! THEY ARE AWESOME".
Email news@australia.to
Copyright © 2008 Australia.TO
