Page 366 - Week 03 - Thursday, 1 June 1989
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maintenance periods, restructuring the property management function, and commencing recruitment action to obtain an expert assets manager.
HOME AND COMMUNITY CARE PROGRAM
Ministerial Statement and Paper
MR BERRY (Minister for Community Services and Health), by leave: Before I launch into my speech on this matter, unhappily I have to report that a couple of corrections have to be made to the copies of the speech which have been circulated.
Mr Kaine: It does talk about HACC, does it?
MR BERRY: It talks about HACC. On page 4 of the speech which has been circulated, if I can refer members to it, Mr Speaker, in reference to the Meals on Wheels service, the amount referred to there should be changed from $33,500 to $3,500. On page 7, in the paragraph which refers to the Woden Community Service, a grant of $13,900 is mentioned; that should read $13,000. On that page the paragraph which refers to Handyhelp ACT is a repeat of a paragraph elsewhere in the report and should be deleted.
Mr Speaker, I take the opportunity to tell the Assembly about another important program in my portfolio. The home and community care program, also known as HACC, is a Commonwealth-State cost shared program directed to three main groups of people: the frail aged, the younger disabled and the people who care for them.
The objective of HACC is to provide a comprehensive and integrated range of maintenance and support services to these people to prevent their premature or inappropriate admission to institutional care. The HACC program was established by the Home and Community Care Act in 1985, in response to reports which recommended a change in the balance between institutional and community based services.
The HACC Act incorporates four previous pieces of legislation: the States Grants (Home Care) Act, the States Grants (Paramedical Services) Act, the Delivered Meals Subsidy Act, and the Home Nursing Subsidy Act. Under these four Acts a limited range of community services was provided, such as senior citizens centres, meals on wheels, and community nursing.
Mr Speaker, the Home and Community Care Act enabled a much wider and better integrated range of services to be provided, such as innovative respite care and transport services. For too long aged or disabled people were simply placed in a hostel or nursing home, even though in many cases they would have preferred to stay in their own homes. With the types of services available under HACC many of them are now able to do so.
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