Page 3471 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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The NDIS is fundamentally changing the way people with a disability are supported, for the first time putting the choice and control over their supports in their hands. Carers will be central to supporting people with disability in determining the choice and control that will make a difference in their day-to-day life and their longer term aspirations. Carers will play a critical role, at the request of the person they care for, in the goal setting and planning process of the national disability insurance scheme.
The importance of carers was brought home to me just last week. I was delighted to join around 100 carers last Wednesday in a celebration of Carers Week. I had a number of conversations with a range of different carers who shared with me some of the issues, challenges and joys of being a carer. The event heard from a young 22-year-old man who, having had a very difficult relationship with his parents, had been through the out-of-home care system in the ACT. He provided a very personal, firsthand account of the positive support and influence he had received from his carers and how they had guided and supported him in childhood and teenage years through to his adulthood.
I would like to finish by thanking all Canberrans who undertake a caring role. It is the people of Canberra that make this community a great place to live. The contribution of thousands of carers in the ACT is a clear demonstration of the heart of this community. I thank Ms Lawder for bringing this motion forward today.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (3.46): We have been advised that today there are over 43,000 people in the ACT providing unpaid care to family members and friends who have a disability, mental health challenges, significant physical health challenges and those who are frail aged. And I further acknowledge the very important role that the unpaid, volunteer kinship carers and foster carers have in providing care to those children and young people who are some of the most vulnerable in our community.
There are over 600 children and young people in Canberra who are unable to live with their birth families. Foster carers and kinship carers play a vital role in providing these children and young people with a secure and stable home on both a short and long-term basis. These children are currently being provided care in 322 kinship placements and 246 foster placements. Foster carers and kinship carers are, without a doubt, the backbone of our child protection system. They open their hearts and their homes to this city’s most vulnerable children and young people.
We know that there are different pathways to becoming either a kinship carer or a foster carer and that this presents a very serious decision for any family. Making this very important decision affects the life of the carers and their families, and it is clear that either option requires considerable commitment and brings significant changes, challenges and joys as part of the foster or kinship care experience.
I have a neighbour who lives in Dunlop and who is just going through the process of becoming a foster carer. All of us, all of her friends and her family, are very excited about her achieving this and being able to foster a child, and we look forward to meeting that person when that moment arises. The thought that goes into the
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