Page 1801 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2006
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only young people and their families but also the elderly and the general population. The places that young people occupy are not spare beds waiting to be filled; quite the opposite is true. The reality is that young people are taking up spaces in an already overstretched system. Aged care services are designed for people over 65 years of age. Young people are not supposed to take up places in this system, although people under 65 comprise nearly five per cent of all nursing home residents.
What is the result of this? The overflow of elderly Australians unable to secure a place in these facilities are forced into acute care beds while they wait for a place to become available. But the consequences do not end there. While the elderly linger in hospital beds, the burden is passed on to the general population as taxpayers’ money is spent on their care and hospital waiting lists grow longer. This is not a situation that is easily resolved, as there are a number of funding traps young people with special accommodation needs fall into.
The funding responsibility for services for younger people with a disability is defined in the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement, or the CSTDA. The CSTDA defines the services to be provided in each state and territory and includes the level of additional growth money provided in the agreement to fund additional services to be managed by the states. State and territory governments have responsibility for accommodation services, as well as therapy, recreation and equipment, among others. The commonwealth has primary responsibility for disability employment services, advocacy and research.
The CSTDA is the instrument whereby the commonwealth allocates funds to the states and territories to provide disability services. For community-based accommodation and support arrangements to be developed for younger people as alternatives to nursing home places, this must be done by the state and territory governments under the auspices of the CSTDA. Nursing homes are not part of the CSTDA, and younger residents cannot access many of the disability services available to other people with disabilities living in the community.
Young people in nursing homes are often caught in a bureaucratic and political funding trap. To help combat this ever-growing problem, the National Alliance for Young People in Nursing Homes was formed at a national summit held in Melbourne in May 2002. The alliance has chapters in each state and territory. It represents young people living in nursing homes and their families, carers and friends, service providers and advocacy organisations. The national advocacy alliance created a five-point plan to generate choices for young people living in nursing homes. These include, firstly:
The Commonwealth Government assume a leadership role in developing an administrative framework encompassing aged care, health, disability and housing, to resolve the issues of responsibility and the shortfall in resources at both Commonwealth and State/Territory levels.
Secondly:
The Commonwealth and the States/Territories agree to promote vastly improved coordination and cooperation across government sectors to ensure that young people accommodated in aged care settings have equity in access to disability services and supports and are provided with appropriate service pathways.
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