Page 1452 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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This statement is important for two reasons. Firstly, it highlights that many carers rely heavily on family members and friends. They do this because governments are not meeting their obligation for basic support services and, while ever this continues, the actual degree of need is masked. In the case of after-school care, while we know the demand is considerable, we also know that too many parents need to rely on family and friends for care options for disabled children.
I ask if anyone in this place thinks this is an appropriate position for parents to be in—to feel guilty for asking, indebted for receiving support and, in some circumstances, the target of resentment by those providing the support. What about the young person here? What does the total lack of appropriate services say about the government’s attitude to young people with a disability? Currently it says that the needs of those with a disability do not rate, that interaction with their peers is not important.
We currently have a number of young people aged 14 in a service for primary school children. How do these young people successfully interact in services that are just not designed for them? How can these mainstream services meet the needs of young people with a disability, especially those with high needs? I think of the missed opportunity of providing these young people with interaction amongst their peer group, amongst people of their own age, and for some access to valuable life skills useful for their transition after the school years.
The representations made to me by constituents are backed by both Carers ACT and Tandem Respite. Both organisations have a wealth of experience and have both outlined after-school care for young people over 12 with a disability as a key issue requiring immediate attention. This motion will actually provide meaningful, practical support to so many families in our community who deserve our assistance, who have the right to participate fully in society, like parents with children without disability. I ask that members in this place support a small but significant measure for carers and disabled young people across the territory.
It is incredibly important that we move on this issue. As I said, the health committee, chaired by Mr Doszpot, came out quite clearly stating that there should be after-school programs set up in the special schools. It was a very clear recommendation. It did not say, “Let’s wait for costings.” It did not say, “Let’s go and do some more work around this.” It said, “Let’s get going on this.” That committee heard from many people around a range of carer issues to do with carers and the need for respite and the importance of respite. This was one of the key issues that came up, particularly around those teenage children.
As I said, it is about ensuring that parents can pursue employment. There are a lot of good economic benefits as to why we would want to do that—not just economic benefits for those families but economic benefits for the ACT generally. It is also around looking at their health and wellbeing. We know that, for many people, part of your sense of worth can be connected to your work. So allowing and supporting these parents to pursue those work opportunities is also important for their health and wellbeing.
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