COTA - What is it? How does it address issues?

COTA (Australia) - What is it? How does it address issues?

COTA (Australia) - What is it?

How does it address issues?

Address by Mrs June Healy OAM
President, Council on the Ageing (Australia)
written by Helen Scott, COTA Information Manager

at

"Positive Ageing Towards 1999 - and Beyond"

First Biennial State Conference of Council on the Ageing
Queensland, Brisbane

Friday, 31 October 1997

* * * *

COTA, short for Council on the Ageing, is an independent organisation run by older people. Its mission is to "protect and promote the well-being of all older people." That is a tall order considering the diversity of this population, however, COTA is clear that its mandate is to develop policies and lobby for the most vulnerable older people, but also to represent those who are independent and healthy and to help them remain so.

WHAT IS COTA (Australia)?

COTA (Australia) is a federation of COTAs that exist in each of Australia's eight states and territories, and of national organisations that are either consumer based or are service providers. This COTA network enables the organisation to have a huge resource of older people to express their views on national policy. This is translated through the national office to government, opposition, minority parties and the public service. In turn COTA (Australia) keeps the grass roots informed on policy developments in Canberra. State COTAs operate similarly at state level. More of how this happens later.

Explaining where COTA came from helps explain what it is.

History

COTA grew out of Old People's Welfare Councils. The first one was formed in Victoria in 1951, and in NSW, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia during the 50's, Tasmania in 1964.

The national Australian Old People's Welfare Council was formed in 1958. The name changed in 1968 to Australian Council on the Ageing, which became incorporated in 1970.

COTA's most recent rebirth occurred in 1991 with a nationwide strategic review. Older people stated emphatically that they wanted to control their own organisation - the service providers and professionals voted themselves out of power. The eight state and territory nominees to the Board must be older persons. COTA became a truly consumer controlled organisation representing the interests of all Australians in the 50+ age group.

The name change to Council on the Ageing (Australia) in 1992 reflects the national focus. The election to the board of national member organisations (two consumer and one service provider) emphasises the umbrella role of COTA. Thus In addition to being a federation of COTAs, it is also an umbrella body for the sector.

Its peak body status is recognised by the Commonwealth Government. It was in fact one of the earliest bodies to be funded, in the 1960s. After an exhaustive review process last year our funding was renewed so we can continue to work for and support older people. We are also supported by levies paid by state and territory COTAs.

HOW DOES COTA ADDRESS ISSUES?

COTA plays a critical role in keeping watch over the many changes that governments are making in Australia. The national office of COTA (COTA Australia) provides information and advice to the Commonwealth Government about the issues important to older people.

Despite older people being such a diverse group, we do share some basic concerns in our desire to be independent and healthy members of our communities. These are:

to see the value of incomes maintained, whether they be a wage, pension, superannuation or generated from investments

a health system to care effectively for the sick

help to stay at home if we become frail

availability of high quality residential care when staying at home is no longer an option.

COTA advocates on these and all issues that affect older people. Housing, health, community services, employment and age discrimination and many other issues have been important areas of advocacy. Underlying all our work is a goal of promoting community understanding and positive attitudes to ageing.

COTA actively encourages cooperation between all national operators in the aged care sector. An example is recent work with the nursing home industry, other consumer groups, unions, and government to ensure national standards and quality assurance in reforms to residential aged care.

Policy analysis and development is one of COTA (Australia)' a major roles and way of addressing issues. It informs all our activities and work with the federal government. It involves:

research and information management,

submissions and issues papers,

advocacy and representation,

debate - for example via committees, seminars, conferences, media releases and articles,

a publishing program.

Lobbying and policy

Older people can influence the direction of government by the process of lobbying, just as industry groups do. The right to influence government has to be earned however, and COTA (A) has to work hard to establish and retain credibility with politicians (of all parties) and the public service. Lobbying means more than writing a paper or meeting with a minister. Government wants to know who the organisation represents, and if they can have confidence in the views expressed. COTA meets these largely unstated requirements by testing any policy position before it goes to government.

Our policy making process enables the widest possible participation by all the COTAs and national members, and enables COTA (A) to meet externally imposed deadlines for submissions and policy statements.

Draft policy papers are circulated to state and territory COTAs and the representatives of national member organisations.

Members tell us what their views are, through phone calls, letters, meetings or through the state COTAs. Calls to information lines also indicate what their concerns are, and what issues are hot. The obvious one recently is nursing home fees and accommodation bonds. What do you say to this elderly woman who wrote "...when will they ever stop picking on older people... The Prime Minister and Members of Parliament will never have to worry about money in their old age...you have to be more militant."

Issues can be raised anywhere in the organisation. State COTAs often ask the national office to consider an issue. Our first step is to check to ensure it is a national issue. If it is a state issue we ask the state COTA to respond. Sometimes policy is initiated in the national office if there is an obvious need. Often the demand for a policy response comes from a government request to submit a response to a report or to a government inquiry - some examples in 1997 have been the inquiries into concessions, private health insurance, housing assistance and competitive tendering for health and welfare services.

If national, the process of policy development is coordinated by the national policy officer, Veronica Sheen. She will start by outlining the issue in a paper. This involves collecting information from various sources, starting with COTA's excellent reference library where previous work on the subject will be identified. The paper is then circulated to state COTAs. If the response is positive, the paper is further developed at national office. Policy teleconferences can help thrash out issues. It is then circulated formally to state COTAs and national member organisations. As a result of their input the draft policy may be modified, then adopted. It can then go to government with the knowledge that it has support from older people throughout Australia.

This is not the end of the story. Once a submission has been made there are often public hearings where COTA representatives present our arguments to an inquiry or a commission. The audience there includes the media, which can generate further publicity, as happened after the Prices Surveillance Inquiry into bank fees and charges.

The federal Budget involves major policy work. Our annual submission is a concise outline of well-developed policy positions that have gone through the process just outlined. It is widely distributed and highly regarded. As President I tramp the corridors of Parliament House leading delegations, with the National Executive Director and a COTA volunteer spokesperson. We visit Ministers, Shadow Ministers, key people in the minor parties and policy public servants. Talking in Canberra to decision makers and representing the views of older people is an important part of all policy work throughout the year.

Older people as COTA representatives sit on many committees that advise government. People are often surprised when they see the list in the annual report. We are fortunate in having a pool of skilled older volunteers at both national and state level to take up issues. These volunteers also provide valuable in-house expertise - an example at COTA (A) is our Superannuation and Social Security committee, SASS. It advises COTA policy and meets with government ministers and policy advisers to discuss issues around retirement incomes and taxation. Some of the recent discussions have been about the deferred pension bonus plan, deeming rates, a universal pension versus means tested system.

During the nursing home reforms COTA representatives on advisory committees worked on issues to do with funding and implementation, standards, complaints etc. COTA has actively tried to foster cooperation between the various sectors involved - providers, unions, other consumer groups and government.

National policy development sessions are also held periodically. National members and other ageing organisations are invited.

The next step in addressing issues is

Publicity, Information Provision and Publications.

The corollary of providing information and advice to government is providing information back to consumers, COTAs, and the sector, about Commonwealth government policy and programs. COTA is well grounded as a consumer organisation to provide information that is trusted. One cannot help noticing a reluctance by governments to use existing organisations and knowledge in preference to untried and costly alternatives.

At late 1997 there has been no resourcing of consumer organisations by the Commonwealth to provide accurate information to help older people and their carers about the changes to aged care, with the Act in effect from 1st October! The Government Information Line is not enough.

All COTAs provide information, advice and referral services. Some are highly developed - COTA (NSW) for example provides the Seniors Information Service for the State Government. COTA (Australia) maintains a special library of material on social gerontology and policy; its unique collection on housing options for older people has been published by the Commonwealth as a bibliography. COTA Queensland's library is a well-used Queensland resource.

COTA (Australia) disseminates information in several ways.

Media contacts via press, radio, and television.

Press releases are released nationally and are often picked up by state COTAs for use at state levels. These and our regular articles in the pensioner press can also be read as full-text on our Internet homepage.

Publishing program
COTA (Australia)'s flagship publication has always been the quarterly Australian Journal on Ageing, which is now jointly published with the Australian Association of Gerontology and Australian Society of Geriatric Medicine.

ReportAge is our bimonthly bulletin on policy and parliamentary happenings and COTA news, such as policy submissions and projects. Available on subscription, it is also delivered to every federal member and senator.

Strategic Ageing is a occasional series on in-depth policy issues. The last one was a post Budget analysis which included comments by other peak organisations and Professor Hal Kendig.

Conferences and seminars are another way of telling people what we think and do. Conference papers are listed on our homepage.

International contacts
COTA actively participates in international forums and maintains contacts with organisations throughout the world.

We now have links directly to them via our homepage on the Internet. We are a long-standing member of the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) - COTA (A) National Executive Director Denys Correll is IFA Vice-President for Australia and Oceania, and an advisory editor for its journal Ageing International.

COTA is also a member of HelpAge International and helped facilitate their regional conference in Perth in August. We are exploring a joint project in the Philippines.

Our international links have been used to great advantage in the work of Australian Coalition '99, for example with the United Nations and Coalition '99 via the American Association of Retired Persons.

The Internet
Publicity for COTA (A) is enhanced by our homepage on the World Wide Web, a process initiated by the most computer literate COTA - COTA Queensland. Our address is www.cota.org.au

Projects and Innovations are another way COTA addresses issues.

A successful strategy for COTA has been training and appointing older people to both represent COTA and educate the community. An example is the Peer Education Project which came to a head during National Medicines Week in July 1996.

The project was based on the premise that older people are more comfortable about receiving advice and information from people they know, trust and respect. So COTA State Coordinators all over Australia recruited over 80 older people who were seen as advocates or leaders in their community. They were then trained to hold 'wise use of medicines' discussion groups. The idea was to empower older consumers to ask health professionals the right questions about their medicines, and to help them more actively manage their own medication.

More than 8,000 people attended 210 sessions, and extra peer education sessions were booked through until early 1997. One of the reasons for the project's success was being able to enlist the support of the national COTA movement - so COTA (Australia) managed the project but the Coordinator, Jan Donovan, was able to work through the State COTAs with State coordinators to enlist volunteers to be trained as peer educators. After training, these educators took the message to older people using state COTA club and other networks.

The volunteers were the vital components, taking the message to local communities. Western Australia for example targeted under-serviced groups during National Medicines Week. A highly successful campaign targeted older people in country areas to encourage them to return unused and out-of-date medicines to pharmacists. Discussion groups with Aboriginal communities and people from culturally diverse backgrounds resulted in the development of Be Wise with Medicines booklets for indigenous, Spanish and Polish audiences. The Queensland peer educators committed themselves well beyond their National Medicines Week activities, with approaches to pharmacists and shopping centres and provision of displays and further talks.

One of the rewarding parts of the project for the evaluators was reading the heartwarming remarks from participants and discovering the positive responses the project has had on behaviour. It has also been gratifying to have glowing responses from the funder, the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services - for example the write-up in the first issue of their new newsletter MediScene (September 1997).

I hope all those who took part felt like the one who wrote:

"Participation has left me with a sense of pride and satisfaction".

The mark of a successful innovation is that it is replicated and goes on to have a life of its own. COTA (A) is able to create a forum for the exchange of ideas between all the COTAs, so that successful programs like this can be extended or replicated. Some other examples are computer training programs for older people in Queensland and Western Australia, and Victoria's Challenging Ageing education series. Queensland's Senior Surfers will be addressing this seminar.

Many programs and organisations which are now household names in Australia were initiated or assisted by COTA. Meals on Wheels, University of the Third Age, Abbeyfield, Senior Citizens' Clubs and Senior Citizens' Week, Retirement Village Associations and Resident's Associations.

Conclusion...(verbal)

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Council on the Ageing (Australia)
Level 2, 3 Bowen Crescent, Melbourne Vic 3004
Tel (03) 9820 2655 Fax (03) 9820 9886
email cota@cota.org.au