The elderly are not a burden

OVER the summer season of endless cricket on our small screens one advertisement that played quite regularly left me unsettled.

I am neither speaking of the young man’s advert for facial hair sculpting, nor the mature age man’s advert for hair replacement.

It was curious that they played regularly back to back though.

This one was an advertisement for an aged care facility and went something like this.

A youngish couple turn up to said facility wishing to visit the wife’s mother (aka the mother-in-law). It’s always the mother-in-law.

They go to her unit and she can’t be found. They go hither and thither across the campus and finally spot the object of their attention boarding a bus for some local activities.

The elderly mother-in-law waves the young couple away informing them she is having way too much fun to spend time with them.

I’m kind of with the ad to this point. But then the disturbing part comes.

Young husband and wife turn to each other shrug their shoulders and ask themselves, “What will we do with our time now?”

Daughter declares she is off for a hair-cut and son in law “high fives” jubilantly stating that he is off to the golf course.

The message is send your elderly loved ones to our facility and they will have so much fun that they won’t miss you and you won’t be burdened with the task of regularly visiting them.

A bit like dropping the family pooch off to the kennel before heading to the beach for holidays.

We all feel so much better knowing that Digger the dog is having heaps of fun with his mates at the pet holiday retreat instead of hanging out with his family.

There are a number of advertisements along these lines.

There is something in the theme of these aged care adverts that is unsettling. I am sure the companies paying for the ads have fine facilities but there is an underlying message that our parents and grand-parents are a bit of a burden on us.

If we can find the right place for them we can get on with our rounds of golf, hair dressing appointments etc. secure in the knowledge that ‘the oldies’ have never had so much fun.

I don’t want to overstate this but it has the slightest hint of “out of mind – and out of sight”.

The recent Royal Commission into Institutional Child Abuse highlights the danger of allowing a vulnerable part of our population to be out of sight, out of mind.

Current population trends have the number of over 65s in Australia increasing over the next number of decades.

It is crucial that we nurture a culture that honours and includes our elders, rather than one that positions them as an inconvenience for the younger generation.

And now this column’s concluding plug…. It’s Friday night. It’s bucketing down rain and the regular Rosies Friends on the Street Outreach finds some shelter near their usual spot.

More than 30 locals find a hot cuppa, some food and most importantly friendship and a listening ear. Knucklehead Team Leader neglects to check the plug is inserted correctly and drags it along the street back to home base.

If the plug isn’t fixed by Sunday the next outreach is in jeopardy. Upon discovering this disaster one of the Rosies team makes a call to Kirk from Humphrey Motors down on Stephen St.

Without skipping a beat Kirk promises to repair the plug first thing Saturday morning. Trailer repaired for free – crisis averted.

Declaration time. I am the knucklehead described above. I have never used Humphrey Motors before and Kirk neither sought nor asked for any publicity.

So always check that your trailer sockets are secured and go about your business secure in the knowledge that you share this beautiful community with generous souls like Kirk from Humphrey Motors. All strength to his arm.

❝ I don’t want to overstate this but it has the slightest hint of “out of mind – and out of sight”.