Why urgent care fix is needed for Kilkivan’s aging residents

Community leaders say a new report by QUT experts has reinforced their push for better aged care services in the western Gympie region town, saying there was no justification for ongoing failures in the sector.

Kilkivan's population is 24.2% over the age of 65.

Campaigners for better aged care services in Gympie’s western reaches have welcomed a new report they say reinforces their call for better facilities to allow residents to stay in the region in their later years.

The Rural Aging in Kilkivan Report, compiled by members of the Queensland University of Technology’s Business School, found residents they interviewed felt “a strong sense of loss in the idea of moving away from Kilkivan”.

The report was compiled through 47 in-depth interviews carried out across four days in late 2020.

Of the 47 people interviewed, 26 were retired.

It found population aging has grown more significant in the Kilkivan area, but a lack of facilities is becoming a persistent issue.

Limited transport, infrastructure, social and health services and a struggle to retain healthcare workers were among the major hurdles forcing elderly residents to move away, a change proven to be detrimental to their mental health.

Kilkivan has a population of 713, according to the 2016 census, with 24.2% of residents over the age of 65- but the nearest hospital is 54 kilometres away with no public transport link.

Rosie Fitzgerald, President of the Kilkivan & District Community Care Association, said all levels of government make unrealistic assumptions about the availability of community members to provide the missing services to their local friends and that they willfully prop up models of care that they know do not work for rural and remote people.

“The investigations last year by the Royal Commission into Aged Care highlighted those deficiencies, didn’t they?,” she said.

“Given that Meals on Wheels is no longer delivered to Kilkivan, and that alternative accommodation options are very difficult to find here when residents become less mobile, our district is left with a few volunteers trying to plug the gaps, and these people are under a lot of pressure.”

Ms Fitzgerald said she did not believe governments met their basic community service obligations, a failure there was no justification for.

“I think it’s generally accepted, especially in the era of Covid, that local solutions to problems like these are the most cost-effective and efficient.

“And for at least two decades, public consultation meetings in Kilkivan have instructed Council to prioritise ageing-in-place services and facilities.

“It’s time that elected representatives acted on the requests of their constituents.”

The council has been contacted for comment.

The majority of the respondents felt that they felt mentally dependant on living on Kilkivan, but they didn’t feel it adequately benefited them physically.

One respondent, who lived in the township for 15 years, said it would be awful to lose the sense of community.

“Wonderful friendships; a sense of belonging; where you‘ve planted your heart; just the familiarity of, ‘this is my home’, and I'm talking about the Kilkivan area,” she said.

“It would be awful to lose that.

“I'm saying, the way things are now, (my husband) and I know that we’ll have to leave Kilkivan because we don't have anyone.

“We don’t have family to care for us if it comes to that.

“He's got bladder cancer and he’s my carer because I lose my breath so easily.

“I’m regarded now as an invalid. Age is horrible, horrible. We joke about it but it’s a mongrel. It’s horrible,” said one of the respondents.

Another resident of five years said they would have to drag them out “kicking and screaming”.