No masking rough hand dealt elderly
OUR elderly are being handed the worst deal by the coronavirus. Not being able to access postal votes is just the start. Serious problems are surfacing around home visits by nursing staff.
Main Beach Association leader Sue Donovan arrived back from overseas thankful her postal vote had arrived but realised her friends were checking their mailboxes without success.
“There are many elderly people living in Main Beach with compromised immune systems – they are afraid to risk voting either at prepolling, or on election day itself,” she says.
Former councillor Eddy Sarroff, running in Division 10, estimates up to 20 residents each day phone him with a similar stories.
“The postal vote closed on March 16, and they haven’t got it. They ring up ECQ and they can’t get through. This is outrageous. For that reason alone they should have extended the postal vote. People are distressed,” he says.
Worse still, at Nerang, readers have told your columnist about loved ones who are in what medical staff describe as “an extremely immunocomprised situation”.
A son has a dad with long-term diabetes, liver and kidney failure. He needs support services.
“My father, like thousands of others, is very reliant on governmentfunded home services,” the son says. “The changing arrangements prohibit nurses and cleaners from entering my father’s apartment.”
Nurses on check-ups are either standing at the front door of his father’s home or keeping contact limited to a telephone call. A grocery chain suspended deliveries.
When contacted, the client provider of support services told the son: “I’m not sure what’s going on, I’m trying to sort that all out with him but at the same time I’m not even going in there.
“I’m going to be dropping stuff at his front door, or wearing an N95 mask if I do go in ... we’ve got about 10 of them (left).”
The son explained he could not get masks or hand sanitisers for his father.
The client provider told him: “What we’re saying to clients is the client really needs to have the mask on while the nurse is visiting because we can’t get them – can’t get them anywhere.”
So nurses have no access to face masks or sanitisers. Everyone is at risk.
The elderly need this support not just for checkups but much-needed companionship, their mental health. These nurses become friends, their family.
Mike Winlaw, also running in Division 10, makes a great suggestion. He says the city needs a “strike force cabinet” of not only business leaders and councillors but key health professionals.
“Ensuring not only the physical but mental health and safety of our families and residents is the number one priority,” he says.
“This council needs to shift our service focus to include personal, family and financial counselling via telephone.
“Ramping up cleaning services and the disinfecting of public places will be critical to containing and eliminating the virus.
“We are in the fight of our lives and while council has traditionally focused on rates, rubbish and roads, we need a team of experienced leaders to adopt a strike force approach to ensure the health and prosperity of our city to move through the curve as quickly as possible.”
The new council elected after tomorrow must reach out to the elderly.
Speak up for our city’s oldest, give them their voice back, make their health a priority on the city’s road to recovery.