Life Begins At.....
Issue link: http://ebook.aprs.com.au/i/32324
MOBILITY :: CONTINUED > In an economy the size of Australia’s, with a shrinking workforce base and a shrinking taxation base, it is going to be essential that if quality services are to be maintained for older Australians, we must develop a multitude of innovative tools and technologies to support older Australians to sustain their health and care needs, writes Rod Young. Can you remember when you saw your first mobile phone? It was large, cumbersome and very unattractive. I can recall thinking, ‘they will never take off’. I can also recall saying, ‘I will never have one of those’. Well nearly 30 years later and I could not live without my mobile phone. I send and receive emails, make appointments, write myself memos, send text messages, send photographs, download my favourite music and recently an audio book. Things have changed. Most importantly, the size has reduced considerably. If this is the change in mobile phones over the past 30 years is it likely that other forms of technology will make similar advances over the next 30 years? As Australia ages it is inevitable that the structural pressures within our economy and society, like many western societies, will be substantial and will drive innovative responses, many of which will be new technology related products and services. It is useful to consider some of the changes in population that will occur over this 30 year timeframe. In 30 years from now, the number of Australians aged over 65 years will 94 THE RETIREE WINTER have increased from 2.4 million to 7.6 million with an estimated total population of 32 to 35 million citizens. The number of Australians aged 85 years and more will have increased from 400,000 today to 1.6 million by 2050. The number of tax payers working in productive employment today, compared to persons aged 65 and over is 5:1. By 2040 that number will have declined to 2.7:1 persons, almost half its current level. The intergenerational cost transfer implications of this change in our productive workers and social welfare beneficiaries are obvious. Couple that with a health and aged care workforce that will need to triple in size just to maintain the status quo and the problems become obvious. In an economy, the size of Australia’s, with a shrinking workforce base and a shrinking taxation base, it is going to be essential that if quality services are to be maintained for older Australians, we must develop a multitude of innovative tools and technologies to support older Australians to sustain their health and care needs. Thirty years ago, that is 1980; the mobile phone had just been invented. If you consider our world 40 years ago then some of the technological changes of recent times become apparent: • Forty years ago, colour television was still a modern wonder. • Forty years ago, cruise control on your automobile was still being developed. • Forty years ago, the internet was still to be invented. • Forty years ago, Bill Gates had only recently made his prediction that 64 megabytes was all that one individual could possibly need on their computer. • And 40 years ago, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was an unknown name. Who amongst us does not have a mobile phone? Less than five per cent of the population. Therefore we all now know how to press keys, read screens, access applications, use a camera, send an image, access the internet and many mobile phone/internet users are learning how to use Skype or have a video link with children or grandchildren, friends and other relatives. How many people today don’t have a television set? Approximately 0.5 per cent of the population. How many of those same people use a remote control to manipulate the channels on the television set? How many people now have a digital camera and are quite capable of downloading the digital images and transmitting those? And finally, 530 million citizens worldwide, many of them Australians, openly participate in a social network phenonomen called Facebook. Technology in the modern world is rapidly evolving and changing. The introduction of the Apple iPhone and more recently the Apple iPad has radically transformed what we can do on phones, how we communicate, the enormous range of applications that can be downloaded to the phone and the knowledge that we can store and access at will to make life easier, simpler and more manageable. The world’s other phone suppliers are scrambling to catch up but the next few years will see all of the other major phone suppliers introduce iPhone equivalent products as well as the other computer providers or computer manufacturers bringing to market iPad equivalent products with many enhancements and improvements compared to the current iPad product. With the launch of digital television and the digitizing of many other electronic components,