Planning For Pets

Mary recently hosted a workshop focused on designing pet friendly accommodation for older people.

The workshop followed the ‘Conversation on Pets and Aged Care’ that Mary hosted in May this year. The Conversation overwhelmingly agreed that animals can have a positive impact on health and wellbeing.

The Conversation identified a number of barriers older people faced when trying to keep their pet when moving into older-person specific accommodation. One barrier was the design of accommodation.

“It is really good to see a continuation of the community conversation on this important issue. I am very pleased to be working towards solutions which will improve the health and wellbeing of older people,” Mary said.

Ms Virginia Jackson, an international expert on designing pet-friendly cities and housing, spoke at the workshop about the considerations that were relevant when designing aged accommodation.

Ms Jackson was joined by Dr Michael Hayward, the Director of the Gungahlin Veterinary Hospital, Vicky Rushforth, Care Choices Adviser at the Calvary Retirement Community and Dr Tim Adams, National Director of Petcare Information and Advisory Service.

“I hope that the workshop gave people insight into new approaches to designing accommodation which will allow older people to take their pets with them into retirement villages and residential aged care. This is a crucial issue, particularly given our ageing population, and one I will continue to work on,” Mary concluded.