Cecily Hunter

Asbestos Disease in Australia: Looking Forward and Looking Back

This article provides an overview and analysis of recent developments in policy and practice in relation to asbestos disease in Australia. It complements three other concurrent publications in this issue representing important contributions of people and organizations toward addressing the health and social impacts of Australias asbestos disease epidemic. The campaign to “Make James Hardie Pay” as well as the efforts of workers and advocates are profiled in this article as well as in this issues Documents and Voices sections. Discussion of recent developments in asbestos-related disease research and mesothelioma surveillance is followed by articulation of the comprehensive public and social health response that is needed to fully engage and address the asbestos disease legacy and to apply lessons learned to help revive the currently waning societal commitment to occupational health and safety in Australia and elsewhere.

The concept of successful ageing: A contribution to a history of old age in modern Australia

In Australia, as in other Western democracies, the category ‘old age’ often refers to men and women who are not only advanced in age, but who are also poor. When two Victorian psychiatrists introduced the concept ‘successful ageing’ into discussions on mental health in old age in the 1960s, they too drew on the experience of men and women whose lives were marked as much by hardship as advancing age. However, their use of this concept has the potential to contribute to a broader understanding of life in old age in twentieth-century Australia because it was also based on observations of changes in the experience of old age that affected all classes. This article has been peer-reviewed.