More talk needed for older Tassies
There is a lot of talk about the needs of children, but little conversation about the needs of older Tasmanians, according to Tasmania’s Council on the Ageing chief executive, Maxine Griffiths. She claims the Tasmanian government needs a “knowledge hub” in order to address the “explosion” in the state’s rapidly ageing population.
There is a lot of talk about the needs of children, but little conversation about the needs of older Tasmanians, according to Tasmania’s Council on the Ageing chief executive, Maxine Griffiths.
She claims the Tasmanian government needs a “knowledge hub” in order to address the “explosion” in the state’s rapidly ageing population.
Ms Griffiths believes there is “no one place” for older Tasmanian’s to gather information about ageing and the services available to them.
Describing it as a “knowledge gap”, she says the council wants a $200,000 recurrent position created for a person to collate information about older people from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, universities, state departments and local councils.
Council on the Ageing Tasmania reportedly receives $100,000 a year from the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
According to Ms Griffiths, the creation of an ‘information officer’ will help in planning for the future needs of older people.
“At the moment the state does not have a mechanism for consulting with older Tasmanians about their needs,” she adds, claiming obtaining information on issues such as transport is difficult for those without internet access.
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