ACT Policing and the ACT Ambulance have issued a combined plea for residents to look out for their elderly neighbours after a series of recent incidents.
In a recent incident a 57-year-old man was found deceased after several weeks in his Bonython home. He died of natural causes. It appears no-one attended his residence during this time.
In another incident, a 70-year-old Kambah man was found in very poor physical condition in his Kambah home after a visit by Centrelink officers on July 2. The man was transported the ACT Ambulance Service to The Canberra Hospital but died later that evening.
More recently, police, firefighters and ambulance attended a Curtin residence where an 89-year-old woman had fallen inside her house sometime in the previous day and was unable to summon help. Emergency services were required to force entry to the house to provide assistance.
Officer-in-Charge of Tuggeranong Police Station Sergeant Rod Anderson said that these recent examples call for checks on people’s welfare, particularly those more vulnerable in our community.
“Welfare checks are a regular part of police duties but we need Canberrans to keep an eye out for those vulnerable people in their immediate community who may, from time to time, need help,” Sergeant Anderson said.
“Emergency services are usually the first to attend such matters. What we don’t like to find when we arrive is a vulnerable or elderly person who is very sick, highly distressed or worse.
“If you have an elderly person that you know, is in your family or living alone next door, please make the effort to check on their welfare from time to time.
“From a police and emergency services perspective, that sense of connectedness to others in your immediate community — whether it’s within your apartment block or local area — can only make for a safer community.”
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