Home Alive in Laura and Gladstone (SA)

When undertaking any planning for rural communities, one of the predominant issues repeatedly identified is the lack of public and private transport options available to them. Despite the obvious impact this has for the elderly, the young, and disabled, the Home Alive program was designed to provide transport options for those people who access the local hotels.

The concept for the Home Alive program was developed following a discussion between the local health service and a member of the community . This discussion identified the need to provide a transport alternative for people to return home safely from the local hotels without driving their own vehicle, and therefore reduce the incidence and potential incidence for collisions and subsequent serious injury or death

In the Mid North and Yorke Peninsula there has been around 200 fatalities and 1,500 serious injuries since 2000. Drink driving is a major issue. From 2000-2006, 34% of Mid North drivers/riders killed had a BAC of 0.05 or above. Similarly, over 20% of injured drivers/riders admitted to hospital after a crash has a BAC of 0.05 or above

The Home Alive initiative addresses the issue of drink driving and provision of transport was considered an effective crash prevention measure. The Home Alive program is designed to build the capacity of the local people and therefore volunteers from the local communities were recruited to deliver the service.

The Home Alive program is provided from the communities of Laura and Gladstone (and includes surrounding communities within a 15 km radius) located in the Southern Flinders region of South Australia. The population of these communities is around 2500 people

The program is jointly supported and funded by the Motor Accident Commission (MAC) and Southern Flinders Health ? Laura and Gladstone skills in program planning, implementation and management, and that there was also a volunteer coordinator who had the skills to work with and manage volunteers.