Recent News

What Happened to Going Out in Style?

Global Mail – 6 December 2012  – http://www.theglobalmail.org

IT’S FRIDAY MORNING at Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital and intensive-care doctor Peter Saul is on the phone to a surgeon, advising him how to deal with 87-year-old Charlie*, who is trying to kill himself. The overdose Charlie took yesterday didn’t work and now, after stabbing himself several times with a kitchen knife, he is in a critical condition.… Read more

Ageism on the road

Australian Ageing Agenda 29 November 2012

Age discrimination is alive and well in the driver licencing system according to a new report from the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission in partnership with the Council on the Ageing (COTA)

The report, entitled Rights on the road: the experiences of older Victorian Drivers, launched on Wednesday found that older drivers face discrimination and unfair treatment with profound implications to their quality of life.… Read more

LGBTI aged care survey

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda  29 November 2012

The largest single aged services provider in the country, UnitingCare Ageing has launched a new survey to understand the experiences oflesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or intersex (LGBTI) older people within the aged care system.

The online survey, which is confidential, was created to allow the provider to gain an insight into the way that older LGBTI people encounter aged care services and sector staff, so that it may later develop more inclusive services.… Read more

The Power of Words

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda 27 November 2012

People with dementia who have lost their ability to remember words, could regain most of their language memory using a simple computer training-program, a new study has found.

Research from Neuroscience Research Australia (NeURA) has found that basic word-training programs,which present information in a format similar to a PowerPoint slideshow, might enable people with semantic dementia to recover their memory for words.… Read more

All New Homes To Be Safer And Easier To Get Around By 2020 New National Campaign To Create ‘Livable Homes’.

Source:   http://www.livablehousingaustralia.org.au/ 

A front door you can easily wheel a pram through; living spaces that are safer to move around in; a step-free shower; a handrail on your stairs; and a toilet on the ground floor.

Launched today at Parliament House, Canberra, Livable Housing Australia (LHA) will target the housing industry to achieve the Livable Housing Design Quality Mark as part of a national campaign to ensure all new homes are safer, more comfortable and easier to get around by 2020.  … Read more

Healthy seniors wanted for multi-tasking study

Healthy West Australian seniors are needed for a study looking at a possible link between losing the ability to multi-task and Alzheimer’s disease.

The University of Western Australia (UWA) research project will study approximately 90 people aged over 60 doing two things at once.

A third of people in the study will have Alzheimer’s, another third will be diagnosed with major depression and the remaining third, which researchers are now calling for, will comprise a control group of seniors who are ageing healthily.… Read more

Sector skills under the microscope

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda  22 November 2012

The national regulator of Australia’s vocational education and training sector has announced it will enact a key Productivity Commission’s (PC)recommendation, and conduct a strategic review of vocational education and training (VET) in the aged and community care sector.

The review, to be conducted by the relatively new regulatory body – theAustralian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), will take a whole-of-sector view to aged and community care training, and aim to identify issues and formulate solutions.… Read more

A step forward on anti-discrimination

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda  22 November 2012

The federal Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, and Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Penny Wong, have released the ‘exposure draft’ for new consolidated anti-discrimination legislation which aims to simplify and streamline Australia’s current anti-discrimination laws.

The new draft Act aims to replace the five different anti-discrimination Acts [Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth); Age Discrimination Act 2004; Disability Discrimination Act 1992; Sex Discrimination Act 1984; and the Racial Discrimination Act 1975] currently in use, consolidating them into a single Act that will tackle all forms of discrimination on the same basis.… Read more

More cause for concern

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda 20 November 2012

Over 70 per cent of Australians would actively seek a vaccination to prevent the onset of dementia if one were available, according to research from the Australian Medicines Industry .

Preliminary findings from a new report from the peak body for the pharmaceutical industry, Facing the Health of Australians, has shown that the threat of dementia generates more fear in the average Australian than does diabetes, obesity or depression.… Read more

Healthy Ageing innovators wanted

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda 14 November 2012

Programs that support older people with diverse needs and translate research into best practice are among reform measures targeted in the latest round of healthy ageing grants.

And doing your research and having evidence that shows your program will work is critical to the application process, says a winner from the previous round.… Read more