By writes Marjory Inglis, health reporter

SUE BALANDIN is no snake oil seller. But she’s convinced, and convincing, that she knows the keys to “successful ageing.”

“There is no doubt the keys to successful ageing are good health, connectedness in your community through family and friends and some sort of financial security,” said Sue.

Newly arrived in Dundee from the University of Sydney, she will spend the next six months working with research scientists at Dundee University’s applied computing division, where a new centre in memory of the Queen Mother is being established to harness new technology for the benefit of older people, in particular those with communication difficulties.

Sue works with people who are massively disadvantaged throughout life and has studied how that impacts on their ability to age successfully.

A speech and language therapist, she specialises in people who cannot make themselves understood through speech due to a life-long disability. Her particular interest is in people who have cerebral palsy and who are ageing. She says they don’t get any of the keys to successful ageing.

“Most people with severe cerebral palsy don’t speak. Most don’t marry or have a live-in partner. Most don’t have children. “

Most don’t have a job and the ability to earn their own income, so they have no long-term financial security.

She explained that most CP people didn’t have friends outwith the people they met every day in day centres or sheltered employment facilities, where the people they met also had disabilities. Inability to speak robbed people of the chance to establish friendships.

Having interviewed many people with disability for her research, she said the real “horror stories” related to experiences in hospital.

One man with severe cerebral palsy was in hospital for three weeks and the only time he got a drink during that period was when his brother visited. The man couldn’t ask for a drink because he couldn’t speak. He had been admitted to a ward where the nurses were trained to cope with the specific medical complaint that resulted in his admission, but were not trained or confident in dealing with a patient with cerebral palsy.

Sue believes that people with a disability who can’t speak can be jeopardised in the health care system because, even if they find some way to communicate their aches and pains and health concerns, health professionals may view these as an inevitable consequence of disability and the ageing process.

Ironically it is better medical care that is keeping people with severe disability alive much longer than in the past and they are “pioneers” in the ageing process. In the past people with cerebral palsy didn’t usually live into their 70s and 80s but that will become more and more common.

But while the obstacles to successful ageing for someone with no speech and a life-long disability are huge, Sue is hopeful about the future. “Things are getting better. I am quite hopeful about the future for all older people. I think the time to be old is now.”

Though she claims to be something of a technophobe, Sue is now surrounded by computer specialists. She was attracted to the applied computing division after meeting Dr Annalu Waller, a lecturer and research scientist there who also happens to have cerebral palsy which affects her speech and mobility.

Dr Waller spent three months at Sydney University last year and Sue intends to pursue further joint projects and collaborations between the two universities.

“The other thing that brought me to Dundee is that in this department they are doing a lot of really innovative research with technology from which, ultimately, the sorts of people I work with stand to benefit.”