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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2951 ..

I would also like to praise the practice nurse for the Junction. I think that is an excellent beginning in giving support and help to young people. I register my acknowledgement of that initiative. I am not sure whether Mr Smyth has talked about a home-based oxygen scheme. I know that this does not affect many people; hence my horror when a particular case came across our desk. A lady had to almost beg for her life in order to get some sort of support. I think it is pretty sad when it comes to that. However, I again acknowledge that the initiative and the funding will provide for the removal of means testing. I appreciate and thank the government and the Treasurer for doing that.

I also appreciate the fact that there has now been an extension to the after-hours roster, the after-hours service, at the child-at-risk assessment unit, CARAU. It provides 24-hour access to services for children who may have suffered sexual or physical abuse. With all the talk of child protection issues still very much in the news out there, perhaps we can have a memorandum of understanding between all the major stakeholders—the child-at-risk assessment unit, Family Services and ACT Policing. We seem to have one or two linkages but I do not see the need for separate MOUs when one could cover everybody.

Unfortunately the budget has not done much to ease the burden of the community in terms of respite care. I hear constantly that there is more and more unmet need, and that is a concern. Groups that currently support families—Fabric, for instance—have not had the increase in funding that they need to meet that unmet demand. I have had many letters from parents and carers who are at breaking point. The ridiculous thing is that, if we do not help the people at the front end, eventually they break down, become sick and place an even bigger burden on our health system.

I received a rather alarming letter from one lady. She states:

I am only 1 of the 125 families in ACT that currently receives no respite care.

I will not go into the detail. She continues:

At the end of this year, that number will climb to over 160 families—

that was at the end of 2003—

not receiving any respite care.

This is something that we really need to take stock of and the government needs to look at it continually.

Another letter I received states:

In giving our child the love and care needed there are very demanding pressures placed on our family. Respite services provide relief from those pressures for our whole family, not only for parents, but also for our special child and siblings.

A spin-off effect of not giving relief and help where we can to those most in need causes many more people to be disproportionately affected, I suppose.

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