It’s official! As the custodian of the Seniors Peak Body, Advocare welcomed guests from across the aged care and community sectors to join us launch during Seniors Week in November. Through this role, Advocare will represent the interests of more than 420,000 WA seniors to help ensure they are supported, connected and heard.
The development of the Seniors Peak Body was a key priority of the WA Government’s ‘An Aged-Friendly WA: State Seniors Strategy’. The Honourable Don Punch MLA (Minister for Seniors and Ageing) attended and officially launched the Peak and helped us celebrate the special event. “I look forward to continuing to work with Advocare to provide a strong voice for older Western Australians and creating a community in which older people feel valued, safe, and empowered to live fulfilling lives in age-friendly communities.”
Advocare’s new CEO, Bev Jowle said “We are excited and honoured to be named WA’s new independent Seniors Peak Body. As an extension on our current advocacy services and supports, we want to be a strong voice for all older people in WA, identifying their concerns and presenting these views and possible solutions to allow older people to thrive.”
Advocare’s main objectives as custodians of the Peak Body is to champion the WA Seniors Strategy, to ensure older people:
- Thrive physically, mentally, and spiritually
- Live in safe and friendly communities
- Stay connected and engaged
- Have views that are heard.
Guided by these objectives, Advocare’s role will be to:
- Ensure older people have their diverse range of views heard, particularly seniors who also belong to under-represented groups, whose views have often been overlooked in the past.
- Raise awareness of existing services and supports older people need and link them to appropriate services.
- Raise awareness of elder abuse and mistreatment of older people as a major problem affecting older people of all backgrounds in our community; and
- Engage and consult with older people to identify their concerns, focus on promoting solutions for identified issues, and to provide information.
Advocare is currently recruiting for a new Manager to drive the work of the Seniors Peak Body. We look forward to sharing this news with you in the next edition of Advocare Newsbites.
For more information contact 08 9479 7566 or email: seniorspeak@advocare.org.au
