Lifelong care needed for people with a disability

The Senate has been called upon to end responsibility shifting and guarantee lifelong care for older people with a disability at its upcoming inquiry.

Older people with a disability should no longer have to dismantle their lives and move home when they hit 65 years old, simply because state, territory and Commonwealth laws are fragmented.

This argument forms the basis of Catholic Health Australia’s (CHA) submission to the Senate, ahead of its Community Affairs Committee Inquiry into Planning Options and Services for People Ageing with a Disability.

CHA has called upon the Commonwealth to fund a separate, universal entitlement-based disability care and support scheme that would provide appropriate long-term care for older people with a profound or severe disability.

Such a scheme would end the state versus commonwealth ‘blame game’ and guarantee that older people with a disability would not be forced to move home once they reach 65 years old, unless they wanted to.

The proposed scheme would guarantee appropriate care for all people over 65, who are assessed as being in need of care, regardless of whether the care is delivered at home, in the community or in a residential facility.

CHA’s CEO, Martin Laverty, has witnessed, first-hand, the forced move of an older, disabled person from one home to another once they turned 65 years old.

“In my private capacity as chairman of Sunshine Home Sydney, we ourselves are experiencing occasions that because of someone’s age, people are being shifted into Commonwealth-funded aged care,” said Mr Laverty.

“The quality of the home is terrific, as is access. But, was there ever a need for that person to move home just because of an artificial government time limit about who pays for what?”

Mr Laverty said that the current state of care for older disabled people is too fragmented. This system, he said, must change.

“Consider a person aged 64 with a profound disability. What happens when they turn 65 years old and they enter the formal responsibility of the Commonwealth? What can we do to put in place a system where the forced shift between Commonwealth and state responsibilities is softened?

CHA’s submission is one of many received, which will all be considered during the Senate inquiry.
 
The committee expects to examine access to planning options and services for people with a disability to ensure their continued quality of life as they and their carers age. They will also identify any inadequacies in the choice and funding of planning options, currently available to people ageing with a disability and their carers.

Submissions to the Senate inquiry closed last week. The inquiry’s final report is expected to be released by 2 September 2010.

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