Utopia: Aboriginal elderly sleeping on ground with dogs amid calls for improved aged care – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

There are a number of aspects to this story which cause me concern. Is this how we take care of the aged in our community? Is this how we want to take care of the aged in our community?

I realise it’s a complex issue, and I realise that services we have ready access to in the cities and major towns of Australia cannot be so easily made available in remote communities. I realise that.

There’s an issue, too, about who provides the services. In the past, it would have been family. That’s often neither possible nor feasible these days, but sometimes it is.

And its not always about money (although clearly funding is part of the problem). There are some amazingly dedicated people providing professional and personal services to elderly people, providing them with care and dignity in frail old age. A frail old age often complicated by ill health, by loneliness, by isolation.

How awful to read about this, in a settlement named Utopia.

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Source: Utopia: Aboriginal elderly sleeping on ground with dogs amid calls for improved aged care – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

DENNIS ARGALL. Ignore Trump’s tweets about North Korea ; the diplomacy is being handled by adults | John Menadue – Pearls and Irritations

Since his election in May South Korea’s President Mon Jae-in has developed a productive relationship with US President Trump, particularly on the difficult issue of both countries’ deal…

Source: DENNIS ARGALL. Ignore Trump’s tweets about North Korea ; the diplomacy is being handled by adults | John Menadue – Pearls and Irritations