Source: Office of the Victorian Minister for Community Services, Hon Sherryl Garbutt

MEDIA RELEASE

FROM THE MINISTER FOR COMMUNITY SERVICES

DATE: Friday, October 20, 2006

$60M PLAN TO MOVE YOUNG PEOPLE OUT OF AGED CARE

The Minister for Community Services, Sherryl Garbutt, said more than 200 Victorians will be better off thanks to the Bracks Government’s $60 million plan to deliver better accommodation for young people living in aged residential care.

Ms Garbutt announced details of the state-wide plan, called My Future, My Choice, in Bendigo today, where she met Peter Szentirmay, 44, the first young person to move out of an aged care home under the plan.

The plan includes a 10-bed specialist unit in inner Melbourne for young people who need 24-hour nursing care – a first for Victoria.

"Aged care facilities are not appropriate accommodation for most young people requiring intensive, long term medical care,” Ms Garbutt said.

"This plan will fund alternative housing to give young people living in nursing homes a better quality of life.

"About 225 Victorians aged 50 years and younger now live in residential aged care, including nursing homes. All have acquired disabilities, caused by accidents, brain injures, genetic or neurological disorders.

"Until now, the only available long-term care for these people has been in aged care facilities, where residents’ average age is 80 years.

"Under the Bracks Government plan, the Department of Human Services will work with young people living in aged care facilities and their families to find them better homes and care."

Under the plan new housing and care options could include:
· small staffed houses in the community;
· nursing facilities specifically set up for young people;
· small collocated units with some shared facilities; and
· specialist wings for young people attached to existing aged care facilities.

"In the coming weeks we will advertise for an agency to set up a specialist 10-bed accommodation unit for people who have high clinical and rehabilitation needs.

"This service will be the first for Victoria and running by 2008. The unit will provide daily clinical, personal and health care."

Ms Garbutt said not everyone will want to move out of aged care.

"This plan is about giving people more accommodation options to decide what suits them best," she said.

"We aim to reduce the number of people living and moving into aged care and fund better support for people who remain there."

Mr Szentirmay, suffered a traumatic brain injury 25 years ago, when he was 19. He moved into a Holdsworth Manor, a large aged care facility in Bendigo 14 months ago.

He now shares a suburban house three other people with acquired disabilities aged in their 20s and 30s.

Ms Garbutt said My Future, My Choice was developed following a $244 million joint agreement between the Commonwealth and States at COAG in February.

The Bracks Government announced $20.8 million in this year’s State Budget for the program – the first installment of a $30.1 million five-year funding pledge to be matched by the Commonwealth.

"Victorian set the ground work for this historic agreement after many years of sustained lobbying to make the Howard Government accept this was a shared State and Federal responsibility," she said.

"Thanks to our efforts, people like Peter can have a better quality of life and live with people of their own age and be closer to family and friends."