THE Diamond Creek Men’s Shed is keeping older locals on their feet through a new ladder safety program.
“We do the gutter cleaning work for the more vulnerable people in the community,” president Leigh Marshall said.
“A lot of older people are not prepared to spend $200 to have someone clean the gutters, so they try to do it themselves.
“They climb these ladders, then fall and hurt themselves.”
In Victoria alone, there are on average 1330 emergency cases of domestic ladder falls a year, most commonly men over the age of 55.
A $20,000 Department of Health and Human Services grant allows the men’s shed to trial gutter cleaning equipment without using a ladder. Mr Marshall said the program would keep men safe and free of hospital expenses.
“One of our members fell off a ladder two years ago and now has a permanent leg injury,” he said.
“He can’t even lift his grandchild anymore and his hospital fees were hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“It would be great if we could help prevent deaths and injury and also save people money.”
(First published in the Diamond Valley Leader on June 28th 2017)
