News digest

In this story:

• Graeme Samuel replaces Buttrose at Alzheimer’s Australia
• Falls top cause for injury-related hospital stays
• Lend Lease first to attain retirement village accreditation

Graeme Samuel replaces Buttrose at Alzheimer’s Australia

Alzheimer’s Australia has announced the promotion of its vice president, Graeme Samuel, as the new national president as Ita Buttrose steps down.

Mr Samuel is a businessman and former chair of the Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria Board. He has also been a president of the National Competition Council for six years, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for nine years, commissioner of the Australian Football League, and chairman of the Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust.

He said the dementia cause was close to his heart having known firsthand the impact the chronic disease had on the person and their family.

“As national president it will be a privilege to advocate for people with dementia as well as their families and carers, and to continue to advocate for better access to dementia services and for research into the detection, prevention and cure of the disease,” Mr Samuel said.

Ms Buttrose will continue her advocacy as National Ambassador to Alzheimer’s Australia and Brian Roche will assume Mr Samuel’s role as vice-president of Alzheimer’s Australia.

Falls top cause for injury-related hospital stays

Falls remain the leading cause of injury-related hospitalisations for older Australians, whose chance of ending up in hospital due to an injury goes up in line with increasing age, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report Hospitalised injuries in older Australians: 2011-12, which was released on Tuesday.

The report found that approximately 126,000 Australians aged 65 and over were admitted to hospital due to injury in 2011-12, with falls being the cause in about 96,000 of those cases. The rate of injury hospitalisations for this cohort increased from about 1,700 cases per 100,000 people aged 65-69 to 11,400 cases per 100,000 for those aged 85 or over.

Most unintentional injuries were caused by falls (77 per cent) followed by an object (6 per cent), transport crashes (5 per cent), contact with animals or people, excluding assault, or venomous bites and stings (2 per cent) and poisoning by pharmaceuticals (1 per cent), according to the report.

Diabetes and pain management medications were the most common drugs reported in unintentional drug poisoning cases, while pharmaceuticals were also involved in about 77 per cent of hospitalisations for intentional self-harm, the report found.

The rate of injury hospitalisations for women was nearly one-third higher than the rate for men, according to the AIHW. Older women also spent longer in hospital on average (7.6 days) than men (6.8 days) but that average increased with increasing age for both men and women, from nearly 5 days at ages 65-69 to over 8 days at age 85 and over, the report found.

Lend Lease first to attain retirement village accreditation

Retirement living developer, owner and operator Lend Lease has become the first organisation to achieve accreditation under the Lifemark Village Scheme, which is the industry’s new quality assurance system.

Villages and operators are assessed against 26 quality standards to attain accreditation for the scheme, which has been developed by sector peak body the Retirement Living Council.

Lend Lease has achieved overall operator accreditation plus 21 of its villages have also been accredited.

Retirement Living Council executive director Mary Wood said Lifemark was created to ensure retirement village owners were accountable and responsive to residents.

“The Lifemark standards measure the most important aspects of a resident’s life at a village, including safety, respect for dignity and community participation. Senior Australians can trust that a Lifemark accredited village is well governed, comfortable and safe, as the standards are rigorous and applied by independent experts,” Ms Wood said.

Lend Lease’s managing director of retirement living, Michael Eggington, said Lend Lease was excited to be the first in the industry to complete the Lifemark audit process.

The Lifemark accreditation process is currently being rolled out across the sector, with around 150 villages expected to be accredited by the end of 2014, according to the Retirement Living Council.