Ageing

Speech given to nurses at Sturt College of Advanced Education, Adelaide, 5th August, 1985 by Adam Graycar, Commissioner for the Ageing. This speech is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Between July 1, 1980 and June 30,1981, 111,220 Australians turned 65 - that is 325 per day. Approximately 73,000 people over 65 died in the same period, that is 210 per day. Thus our "aged" population increased by around 42,000 in the year or by 115 per day. When translated into goods and services and social facilities and supports, this warrants careful policy attention. Elderly people require a wide range of supports, especially income support, health services, housing support and social services. Public resources which are allocated are substantial, yet the range of incomes, access to services and housing situation of elderly people is probably wider than for any other population category