Call for elderly contact scheme to go national
A Red Cross program that has been the difference between life and a lonely death for hundreds of elderly Australians should be used as a model by state and federal governments to halt the increasing number of older Australians dying alone at home, social welfare agencies say.
In the Telecross service, Red Cross volunteers each day phone 5,000 elderly or incapacitated people who live alone. If they do not answer they phone a nominated family member or friend.
The scheme led to 500 “emergency activations” in Queensland last year, said a spokeswoman, Susie Chippendale. As a result, many people who had fallen and been immobilised were found.
In NSW, 1,639 calls went unanswered in the six months to December, requiring follow-up phone calls to family members or emergency services. The figures reveal the difference regular contact can make for the increasing number of elderly people living alone.
Ms Chippendale said the Red Cross aimed to double the size of the service within three years. But the Council on the Ageing suggests going further and using the program as a model by state and federal governments, which have been criticised recently over unreported deaths in public housing. The council’s executive director, Dr Geoffrey Bird, said the Red Cross program and others like it could form the basis of a national strategy by state and federal governments.
The NSW government’s failure to fulfil its promise of a twice-a-year “care call” program showed the need for a national approach, he said.
But Dr Bird said the first thing that needed to happen was for Australians to revive a flagging sense of community.
The NSW Department of Housing has been criticised after Jorge Coloma, 64, was found dead in his flat in Yagoona, his body having been undiscovered for almost a year.
