A weekly phone call could save a life

Victoria’s Housing Minister has marked the UN International Day of Older Persons with an event to promote a new free monitoring service available to public housing tenants aged over 75.

Above: Victorian Minister for Housing, Wendy Lovell and local member Andrew Elsbury (Member for Western Metropolitan Region) with tenants in the program.

Victoria’s older public housing tenants who live alone are being encouraged to sign up to a free monitoring service which the State Government says could save lives. 

State Minister for Housing, Wendy Lovell said the Keeping in Touch program was “a wonderful way of ensuring peace of mind for older public housing tenants and their families” that was simple and free to join. 

Speaking at a morning tea with residents of the Hanmer Street Estate older people’s accommodation in Williamstown today to mark the UN’s International Day of Older Persons, Lovell said that tenants who were 75 and over could sign up to receive a call once a week from departmental staff. 

“If the tenant doesn’t answer after three attempts 15 minutes apart, staff will alert their designated emergency contact, usually a family member or friend, who can then check that the tenant is okay,” Lovell said. Tips are also offered on how to beat the heat on designated ‘heat alert days’. 

More than 6,000 public housing tenants are contacted every six months by Departmental staff who check their welfare and ask if they want to join the more than 1,000 tenants receiving additional weekly checks through the Keeping in Touch program. 

“Our tenants, like all other Victorians, are entitled to privacy, but joining this program and receiving a friendly once-a-week phone call to make sure they’re okay could be a real life-saver,” Lovell said. 

Personal experience

Phil, who lives in metropolitan Melbourne, is one tenant who knows the value of the Keeping in Touch program, after the Department was unable to make contact with him last month. 

Staff alerted Phil’s emergency contact and asked them to check on him. The contact reported that Phil had fallen and had been on the floor since that morning. 

Phil is still living independently, thanks to the service. 

The Keeping in Touch contact number is 1800 269 250 and can be called between 9am and 5pm weekdays.

Tags: keeping-in-touch-program, public-housing, social-isolation, victorian-government,

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