Page 1906 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 June 1993
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What is desperately needed is access to purpose built facilities where dementia sufferers can receive the level and type of care specific to their needs, like, for instance, the facility about to open in the next few weeks as part of Mirinjani in Weston, the new Eabrai Lodge. With proper and considerate architectural design and planning, and with careful and appropriate staffing arrangements and management, the 20 people who will be admitted to Eabrai Lodge will receive exactly the care they need, given our levels of understanding of the world of dementia. Their families will know that their loved ones are cared for in an appropriate, caring and understanding environment. However, Madam Speaker, while the current funding formula continues to be administered by the Federal Government we will not be seeing very many Eabrai Lodges being built. Mirinjani know that they will have to run the lodge at a considerable loss each year, but believe that the need is so great that they have committed themselves to continually fundraise to enable Eabrai Lodge not only to open but also to look forward to a future and stay open.
To put it simply, the Federal Government currently has two tiers of funding for aged people needing assisted accommodation or care - one for hostels and one for nursing homes. The hostel level is the formula paid, obviously, for hostels, but also for specific dementia care facilities like Eabrai Lodge. Any purpose built dementia facility is funded currently at the hostel level. This level provides funding for hostel places for aged people in relatively good physical and mental health. These people do not need constant care and attention. This form of funding for dementia specific facilities is grossly inadequate and makes no allowance for the special full-time care dementia sufferers require. The nursing home formula, on the other hand, is based on levels of nursing care required. Not only is it, I believe, the wrong assessment - that is, it is based on nursing care - but also it is too costly. These people need a particular kind of special care, but not necessarily high-level nursing care.
I believe that what is needed is a third level of funding specifically designed to cater to the needs of dementia sufferers. This must be adopted by the Federal Government. It would fit, in cost terms, between the hostel and nursing home levels, and would have an appropriate structure comparable in assessment, admission and monitoring with what applies for hostels and nursing homes. It would enable the needs and level of care of sufferers to be correctly established. The correct level of staffing hours would be applied at a cost-effective rate. It is simply not good enough to continue to rely on the current funding policy and I believe that it is incumbent on the Federal Government to address this social issue as a matter of urgency. We must urge all governments to bring pressure on their Federal colleagues and have this matter given the priority it deserves.
On behalf of our ACT community, I believe that it is our responsibility to continually fight for the rights of these people and their families - to seek what we call social justice on their behalf. For how long can we allow the current situation to continue? I believe no longer. I know that budgetary times are tough, but I do not believe that the cost and expense of providing care for dementia sufferers has been looked at properly. In fact, if the extent of the problem were identified as it should be at the Federal level and appropriate care facilities provided, it would not only be cost effective but also ensure that appropriate care is being provided for the different levels of age-related care.
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