'blackmailing' Disabled
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday September 16, 2008
I recently attended a meeting at NSW Parliament called by Opposition spokesman for The Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care, Andrew Constance.
I was representing Nardy House and carers of people with profound disabilities.The meeting was called to discuss draft legislation related to respite care and supported accommodation for people with disabilities, proposed by the hapless department.The meeting discussed the proposed labelling of people with disabilities who overstay their respite as "trespassers". This enables, one assumes, the Government to take appropriate action to have these trespassers removed.Given that public property is publicly owned and that the department would be removing extremely vulnerable people from what is in essence their own land, this really is the pits.Further, the meeting was informed that 19 group homes owned by the department sit idle because they are not funded and staffed. This is while many young people with disabilities are consigned to nursing homes.How many people with disabilities has the department taken from nursing homes and placed in supported accommodation in the past 12 months? According to the department personnel reporting to the recent Young People in Nursing Homes Conference held in Melbourne, there is a grand total of three.This was only possible because carers building on to their own home catered for two other people, as well as for the person in their care.The meeting was also informed of a new overnight respite facility in Sydney that has never been used because the department won't staff it. How familiar is this tale of woe?The final flourish is that it appears Mr Constance is responsible for the abysmal service provision that forces people to abandon those in their care when they can no longer go on. He is responsible because he would not support the assets sale of our electricity.It is not possible to sit back and pretend people with disabilities and their carers are receiving a fair deal. To label people with disabilities as trespassers and to force their carers into acceptance of whatever is on offer by way of supported accommodation, no matter how far away from family, friends and home, is emotional blackmail.Denise Redmond, Project Manager, Nardy House.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury