Page 1241 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 7 May 2014
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However, this agreement does not provide a free card for the government to simply go ahead with these changes without providing the proper public consultation and information about how these changes will go ahead, nor does it prevent the government from receiving appropriate scrutiny from the opposition as these changes are made.
That said, this announcement has brought with it an enormous amount of stress and anxiety for the families of individuals who are directly affected by these changes. This is the driving force behind today’s motion that is before us currently. My office has received a considerable amount of correspondence in the last couple of weeks in the wake of the recent announcement. More often than not, words such as “unsure” and “unclear” are used in the correspondence. This to me highlights the current failure of the minister to provide the answers for the uncertainty faced by the disability community and the need for a clear and detailed understanding of just how the withdrawal of services will be handled, particularly with regard to Therapy ACT.
According to the Community Services Directorate annual report for 2012-13, Therapy ACT provided services to 4,736 clients, of whom 1,515 were provided with brief consultation services through a drop-in clinic or intake service and 3,221 were accepted as clients for a therapy program. It was originally expected that only 4,410 clients were likely to need to access therapy services in that year. However, last year there was a blowout and the number increased as a result of demand from the community.
Overall, 75,697 hours of therapy services were provided last financial year. These services were received by some of the territory’s most vulnerable individuals and their families. This is a significant gap that will need to be filled by the non-government sector as we transition towards the national disability insurance scheme. If you are a recipient of these services, it is easy to understand why there may be some significant anxiety or uncertainty surrounding the minor detail that has been released to date on how these changes will progress.
We know for a fact that demand outstrips supply when it comes to provision of therapy services. There are countless families still waiting for assessments and services and countless more are yet to even get to the point of assessment. Only last year we had another case in this minister’s responsibility where she was simply unable to get the communication with the community right. That was when it came to consultation on the decision to change the setup for, and to close, some respite services in the ACT.
Minister Burch announced in September last year that centre-based overnight respite services that were provided by the Elouera House, the Kese House and the Teen House were no longer going to be provided by the ACT government. The families who used these services were, however, not properly informed about the decision and were left in a distressed and anxious state about alternatives and what these changes would mean for them.
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