Page 2436 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 1993
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Mr Berry: What would you do, though?
MRS CARNELL: No, I would not reduce HACC funding, because we know that a very large percentage of these people are at home. They need support services. If we want to keep people, aged people, people with dementia, out of crisis care, out of full-time care, we have to provide the services at home. That is what this report attempted to talk about. That is what a very large percentage of the recommendations in this report are about - how we keep people out of institutions and therefore save both the ACT Government and the Federal Government substantial amounts of money. But, unfortunately, the Government has not even responded to this report.
The other thing that I think is interesting is this: Mr Berry brought up very appropriately the national action plan on dementia care, which is a very appropriate response. Unfortunately the Federal Labor Government last night announced a $2.7m reduction in the national action plan for dementia care and special services to the aged. This is a Government that supposedly cares about people. It certainly would not appear so. In fact the Council on the Ageing this morning said that the budget that was brought down last night is an absolute tragedy for the aged; that there is absolutely nothing in the budget. In fact we have already seen two real cuts in the budget that will affect our aged in the ACT, and particularly the 1,200-odd people in the ACT who have dementia.
We know that over the next 10 years the number of people with dementia in our community will increase substantially. In fact on Australian figures we currently have 117,000 people with dementia, and it is predicted that in 10 years' time, or by the year 2001, it will be 160,000. That is a dramatic increase in the number of people with dementia. Currently the Federal Labor Government have refused to increase the funding for dementia. In fact we have the situation, as Ms Ellis knows, and maybe Mr Berry knows, that dementia patients are looked after in nursing home accommodation, and we know that it is just so inappropriate to have dementia patients in the same environment as nursing home patients. It is destabilising both for the dementia patient and for the elderly person in the nursing home.
We know that currently, under Federal Labor Party funding, it costs people or organisations who put together funding for hostels to look after dementia patients $15,000 per patient per year in excess of what the Federal Government subsidises them for. Currently a private sector not-for-profit organisation with a dementia unit with, say, 10 patients would have to find or raise $150,000 per year. That is prohibitive. It is prohibitive for any group to look at that. I think many of us here were at the opening of Eabrai Lodge over the weekend. The Uniting Church has taken huge risks in opening that unit, a unit for 20 patients. They know that they are going to lose substantial amounts of money per year if the Federal Labor Government - - -
Mr Humphries: Even more now.
MRS CARNELL: That is right. They will lose substantial amounts if the Federal Labor Government does not change its tack. In essence, that is exactly what Ms Ellis's motion calls for - for the Federal Labor Government to do something about this dreadful situation. It appears that what it has done is cut funding in areas that desperately need it. We all know the problems that Shakespeare Cottage has had in the past. They really have had to change their rules recently
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