Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a second-year social work student, Sara Lambert, on placement in my office at the moment. She has been working there since September. During the time she has been on placement in my office she has done some constituent work. She has also organised two forums—one on breast cancer and the other a seniors forum—both of which were attended by about 300 people.

In addition to that she had a major project, which was to complete a study within the electorate. She has done that and has put together a fantastic report, ‘You are only as old as you feel’. It is 29 pages, well researched, footnoted and an excellent piece of work. In addition to that, I have asked her to write a speech for me that talks a little bit about her study. The words I am about to read are not my words; they are Sara’s. You will not believe that she is a second-year social work student. You would think that she was a fourth-year student. The quality of her work and her ability to handle the many tasks that she has been given in the electorate office have shown that she will be a fantastic social worker when she completes her studies. These are Sara’s words:

Australia has seen a 167 per cent growth in the proportion of older people in the population in the past two decades. This has been especially felt in the Shortland electorate where people over the age of 65 currently make up 17 per cent of the population compared to the national average of 13 per cent. This places stress on the provision and accessing of aged-care services in the Shortland electorate as well as on where funding and planning needs to be focused both now and the future.

This project aimed to investigate the main barriers to services in both the Shortland electorate and Australia wide and figure out where the gaps in service provision and access lie both presently and in the future. After countless hours of reading, integrating and drawing conclusions, it became clear that the older population in the Shortland electorate is at a severe disadvantage due to ageist attitudes throughout all levels of societal structures. Unfortunately, in Australia ageing is socially and culturally defined. Local newspapers and programs in the Shortland electorate and throughout Australia classify all older people as dependent and frail, individuals who contribute little to society. This project however sought to dispel these negative stereotypes and focus on promoting the attitude that each and every individual will live their lives at their own pace whilst coping with natural and biological changes that occur to each and every person throughout their lives.

When looking specifically at health, older people encompass a large part of the disease and injury burden in Australia and in the Shortland electorate. Whilst figures clearly show this and attitudes in society reflect this, many older people suffer from at least one type of chronic illness and actually report their satisfaction with life as fairly high. These types of points especially highlight the need for an attitudinal shift in society to reflect these individuals are capable of living independently within their means and the sooner this shift can occur the sooner more services can be upgraded, expanded and catered to meet the rights and needs of every older Australian in the Shortland electorate and the wider Australian community.

Another large concern this report found was in relation to mental health problems in the older population. In 2007-08, mental health was recorded as the ninth most common long-term health condition in the over-65 population. When looked at next to the fact that suicide rates in people over the age of 65 are higher than any other age group, it becomes obvious that there needs to be a significant increase in services which target older people as well as younger people. Unfortunately today’s society has seen mental health focus switch to prevention and early intervention. These mainly target younger individuals and whilst new services have been emerging in recent years most are catering towards youth. This blatantly ignores the older population and their mental health problems. Policies and planning need to shift the focus in the near future to providing long-term commitments to mental health services catering at servicing the older population as well as the younger if it is to decrease the impact of mental health problems in the older population.

In promoting these types of attitudes there needs to be acknowledgement paid to the many care services that operate in the Shortland electorate. Community based assessments and services promote independence and individuality by recommending and providing access to services which will help older people remain in their own homes and maintain a satisfactory quality of life as long as possible. These services are also successful in upholding the rights of every older person they come into contact with by allowing them to retain autonomy and independence by leaving all final decisions in their hands and not forcing them into situations which they may be uncomfortable or unhappy with. If these attitudes can be spread through society and the work and help of these services be promoted, then it is very likely the Shortland electorate could undergo some substantial attitudinal shifts towards celebrating the older population for what they are and what they offer, not devaluing them for their perceived and stereotyped detriments.

The major issue when looking at maintaining the level of service community care agencies offer is how the community care system can continue to function if there is not adequate recognition and provision for informal forms of care and support, most importantly those who offer their time and energy to care for older people without financial incentive. In 2006 there were an estimated 2.6 million carers Australia wide. Of these, around half received a government pension as their principle source of income, and many found their caring role created a barrier to employment they could not surmount. By 2031, the number of old people estimated to require informal care will grow by 60 per cent whilst the number of carers will grow by 57 per cent.

If adequate informal supports for older people who require assistance—whether it be social, physical, psychological or financial—cannot be ensured, the impacts will resonate through both the formal community care services and residential care options. To ensure the success of community care packages and ageing-in-place strategies, we need to begin to focus on this most basic pillar of the system: looking after and acknowledging those who put the most time and effort into ensuring the older population is afforded the best quality of life. I strongly believe the work done by local and federal governments towards meeting this goal is exceptional, and hopefully this is representative of changes already beginning in providing adequate recognition for carers throughout all structures from governmental to organisational to societal.

Whist the societal attitudinal change will be gradual and can only occur with the support of the majority, the attitudes within the aged-care service provision industry have begun to lay roots in this area which over time should continue to grow. These attitudes encourage autonomy and self-determination in all older people and enforce the positive, realistic view that older people are generally independent human beings who are capable of making decisions for themselves and going after what they want. They are simply at a different stage of the human lifespan to the remainder of society and consequently are experiencing different medical and physical ailments. This does not mean they are not still the unique, autonomous individuals they have been throughout their lives or that they do not deserve to be treated as such. We can change perceptions and lives for the better if there are enough people willing to put the effort in—and really, one day it will be all of us. What better incentive do we need to act now?

You can see from those words that Sara is an exceptional young woman and that the social work profession will be very privileged to have her as one of their number.