Cade Lucas
Eighty-two-year-old David Townend suffers from a muscle wasting disease that has left him wheelchair bound.
Despite this, the elderly Werribee resident doesn’t regard it as the biggest health challenge he faces.
Rather, it’s the looming end of weekly social activities due to Wyndham council’s decision to stop providing aged care services, that has him most concerned for his wellbeing.
“Talk about health problems, well the council are creating the problem by taking this away from us,” he said.
“Most of the group (members) only get out on the Wednesday and Thursday, it’s like an extended family.”
Like many elderly Wyndham residents, Mr Townend has been attending council-run social gatherings, Vintage and Planned Activity Group, for the past eight years.
But with Wyndham council recently responding to the federal government’s aged care reforms by announcing it would transfer its services to a mixture of private and non-for-profit providers, Mr Townend is concerned existing social groups will be broken-up and friendships and a sense of community lost.
“We’re told that if we have a home care package they may start up groups but we’re all with different servers so we won’t be together, which is defeating the purpose,” he said, adding that council didn’t survey or consult with social groups ahead of the announcement and that many members feel let down.
“Most of us think the council have lost the essence of serving the community, especially the older people. We pay our rates, same as anyone else. There were ladies of our group in tears and even male members close to tears when we were told about this.”
In response, Wyndham council said it understood that many clients attending group programs wanted to maintain relationships when they move to a new provider, and that it was working with the federal government to ensure this happens.
“This a key priority for both council and the Commonwealth Government and we have an in-principal agreement to enable this whenever possible,” a council spokesperson said.
“The Commonwealth Government is responsible for appointing new providers and early information indicates that new providers will be in place well before the end of the year, to ensure that there will be adequate time for clients to move to a new provider. All current clients will be contacted individually by a council officer once new providers are appointed, and council officers will work closely with clients to ensure that they are supported in their move to a new provider.”
