Recent reports in the media about the bodies of elderly people being discovered up to a year or more after they passed away, has some of us wondering: Where is the love for our fellow man?

It is rather a sad indictment on our society that so many people, especially the elderly, are dying alone in our large cities and their bodies are not being discovered for weeks, months and in some cases, years.  The latest victim of this tragic phenomenon is a woman in her 70′s known only as ‘Mary’, whose body was discovered in her Sydney home two months after her death.

This latest incident comes less than two weeks after the body of a 64 year old man was discovered in his Sydney home, about a year after he passed away.  There were reports that the elderly man didn’t have a home phone to call for help.  Earlier this year a 73 year old man was found dead in his bedsit in the Sydney suburb of Artarmon, sparking criticism of the Department of Housing who owned the tiny flat.  But Sydney is not the only city in Australia who is accused of not caring. 

In 2007 the body of a man was discovered in his home on the Gold Coast where it is estimated he had been dead for up to two years.  The body of a woman was found in her home at Algester in Queensland about a year after she passed away.  And then there was the case of a 94 year old man who was profoundly death and died a month before his body was discovered in his home at Auchenflower. This disturbing pattern has been repeated in just about every major city in Australia. [source: Courier Mail ]

As a long time Sydney-sider, I am concerned about what has happened to the city of my birth.  We no longer live in communities, but in clusters of houses where we keep to ourselves and where other people’s problems are none of our business.  We stand idly by when crimes are committed and are hesitant to come forward when law enforcement asks for our help.  We just assume someone else will step forward.  So it is when there is an elderly person living in our street, we make no effort to check in on them because we assume he or she has a relative who is looking out for them.  We may also console ourselves with the belief that some charity or government agency will look after all these lonely people.  But after more than a decade of cut-backs in government spending, sadly this is not the case anymore.  And with an aging population, we can expect to see this sad situation repeated over and over again.

Recently the NSW Department of Housing has been criticised for not paying enough attention to their elderly residents.  At least two of those whose decomposing bodies were discovered recently, were Department of Housing tenants.  The department said they have a policy of checking in on their elderly tenants once every six months.  A pretty useless gesture when you consider a tenant could still be lying dead in their home for up to six months before being discovered.

A much better way of tackling the problem are initiatives such as the Telecross program.  Telecross is was developed by the Australian Red Cross and involves a small army of volunteers making more than 5,000 phone calls daily to the elderly and housebound, to ensure they are safe and well.  Of course, Telecross won’t be able to save the lives of all the elderly registered with the program. But at least those who do pass away will not have to suffer the final indignity of having their bodies decomposing for up to a year or more, before being laid to rest.

With an aging population, Telecross needs more volunteers to make some of the thousands of phone calls the program makes to elderly residents across Australia.  I’ve already submitted my name as a volunteer and I encourage anyone who is concerned about this issue to do the same.  To volunteer for Telecross submit your details via the Australian Red Cross website, or call the national office in Melbourne on (03) 9345 1800.

by Deborah Robinson