Page 1467 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 26 September 1989
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services; the improvement of accessibility of services to clients of non-English speaking backgrounds; the investigation and expansion of existing transport options for the people with disabilities and the frail aged; the improvement of accessibility of services to younger people with physical or intellectual disabilities who are at risk of premature institutionalisation; the provision of respite care services for the carers of people with dementia; development of an equitable and consistent salary level across home and community care services; the effective monitoring and the need for and use of any aids and appliances to enable the persons to have more control over their own environment. Those issues are related mostly to the provision of care in a person's home and do not relate to the other innovations in the provision of hostel and nursing home care where there is a need for more intensive care for those in need of a service.
I might just point out a few other issues in relation to HACC. Work has begun on the extension to the Hughes Community Centre and at this stage it is estimated that the services will be able to move in in March 1990. The demountable offices for the Woden Community Service have been purchased and installed and the staff are very happy, I am told, about the improvement this has made to their office accommodation. The community options project was set up initially under the auspices of the ACT Council on the Ageing, and information workshops and orientation of staff are being undertaken with a view to taking on clients from 25 September 1989 - which, of course, is now past. A number of HACC training days for service providers have already been conducted by the consultant, covering topics such as self-management, management committees, record keeping and financial management, and they have all been well received by service providers.
All currently funded services have now been reviewed, and draft review reports have been sent back to all organisations for their comment. A copy of the first HACC newsletter has been circulated and well received, and a two-day training course was run on 25 July and 1 August for all service providers. So things are moving along in the HACC area. The aim is to provide a service to that area of the community which HACC serves very efficiently.
Mr Speaker, I will not take any more of the Assembly's time, other than to say that this area of the home and community care program is, as Mr Humphries rightly said, an important area of my portfolio. It is not the most important area. As Mr Humphries will know, all areas in my portfolio are very important and they will always be treated as such.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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