Susan Emerson is the Salisbury (SA) citizen of the year
Susan Emerson, director of care environments and service strategy, at SA’s Helping Hand Aged Care, has been named the City of Salisbury’s citizen of the year.
The award recognised Ms Emerson’s coordination of several highly successful intergenerational programs over the past decade.
“It’s a great honour and it’s very humbling to be given an award like this,” she said.
“It is a personal award but the way I consider it, it’s a reflection of many years of partnership with other people in a real team effort.”
The judges acknowledged that collaboration between aged care facilities and local schools through art projects and internet cafes, helps to challenge prevailing stereotypes about older and younger people.
“These projects give younger people the opportunity to learn and they give older people, with a wealth of experience, the opportunity to teach,” she said.
“A lot of older and younger people are invisible but by being involved in things like art exhibitions, they are able to become visible.”
Ms Emerson said her award also provided some positive publicity for aged care in the local community.
“It’s a good story and it’s a genuine example of the kind of experiences that we enable in aged care all the time,” she said.
“I know that all around Australia these quiet projects are going on but so often other things take precedence in the press.”
