Beverley Head
Wednesday, 18 August 2010 15:52
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
By 2026 more than two in five Australians who live alone will be aged 65 or over – and nine out of ten of them would prefer to stay in their own homes as long as possible. According to trials being conducted at an NBN testbed in Sydney, broadband communications networks might allow them to do that for longer.
Australia is facing a demographic tsunami as the ranks of older Australians swell. In 2007, there were 2.4 million people aged 65-84 years – by 2022 there will be 4 million. The number of people aged 85 years and over is also soaring, from 344,000 in 2007 to 1.7 million by 2056.
According to Robert Samuel, executive director of Consult Point, which has been involved with the NBN testbed in Sydney, “the NBN and other broadband initiatives can really make a difference to older Australians’ lives by addressing better care and helping reduce social isolation and boredom.” One of the systems being tested at the Parkbridge estate in Sydney’s southwest is an iPad based system which allows friends and family to keep in touch over broadband.
The ‘Keep In Touch’ project which is being managed by the Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre in collaboration with Consult Point is now being tested with residents according to Mr Samuel and intended to allow residents to easily keep in touch with someone in aged care, community care, or a young child that can't use email or telephones.
“People are getting very interested in peak speeds and fibre – what is useful are the applications,” said Mr Samuel. Having worked with leading aged care providers around Australia, including a Government funded broadband trial in conjunction with Church Resources, Samuel believes that most older Australians would prefer to live in their homes as long as possible, rather than move to specialist aged care facilities – a fact confirmed by a study released in May by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute which found 91 per cent of people would prefer to live in the family home as long as possible.
Mr Samuel believed that communications devices which allowed people to communicate with friends and family – and applications which allowed remote monitoring of vital signs would help facilitate that. He said that the Labor policy unveiled this week which would establish a Medicare claim number for videoconference consultations would also be valuable for older Australians wishing to remain at home longer.
