Page 644 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 May 1992
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Intellectual Disability Services
MRS CARNELL: My question is also addressed to Mr Connolly, in his capacity as Minister for Community Services. What is the waiting time for respite care and for full-time residential care from Intellectual Disability Services? How long, on average, do people on the waiting list wait, and what procedures are in place if a family on the waiting list ends up in crisis?
MR CONNOLLY: We are providing respite care to people in need. The result is that the regularity with which respite care can be enjoyed is slipping. We are able to provide it about one week in eight to families who need it, whereas a year or so ago it was about one week in four. We are providing respite care to more people. There is not a waiting list. Rather, people who are enjoying the service are getting access to it through government. With the government carer, at Finniss Crescent in particular, it can be less regularly offered. There are other services. In particular Fabric, which is extensively government funded, is able to offer some other service.
In terms of permanent placements, the department actively monitors all persons in need and is aware on any given day of the rather large number of people, up to 100, who may like to have access to a service and of the much smaller number who are in need. When a vacancy occurs there is an assessment, first of all, of who is most in need and, secondly, of the level of disability of the children. As Mrs Carnell would be aware, the level of profound disability varies enormously. For instance, the Chapman facility caters for children of a younger age group and of a very profound level of disability. That would be a quite inappropriate placement for an older child with a high level of functioning ability. There is at the moment, as it turns out, a vacancy at Chapman which has not been filled because there is not a family seeking care for a child with the level of profound disability that Chapman caters for. So, to some extent, there is a vacancy there which is not yet filled.
When other places become available, either in the hostels or in the homes - and we are trying to get out of hostel care into home care - an assessment is made as to who has the most need and who can best be served. So, there is no formal date list as there is, say, for public housing. We cannot say that for South Canberra we will be able to provide a three-bedroom home at a certain date so many months down the track, a two-bedroom flat at a date so many months down the track or a bedsitter at a date so many months down the track. It does not work like that. There is a regular review of the cases.
Mr Kaine: It does not work at all.
MR CONNOLLY: This is typical of the Liberal Party. They are great at the macro level about saving money. They say, "Let's cut; let's slash". That is the former Chief Minister. At the macro level they want to save money. At the micro level, for every problem that is raised, this opportunistic Liberal Party's solution is to spend more money. We cannot spend more money. What we can do is more carefully husband our resources in this area, and that is what we are doing.
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