Source: Office of Mary Wooldridge MP. State Member for Doncaster,Shadow Minister for Mental Health, Women's Affairs, Drug Abuse, Community Services and Ageing 2/1020 Doncaster Road Doncaster East 3109

MEDIA RELEASE

Wednesday 7 May 2008

NO SUPPORTED ACCOMMODATION BEDS FOR VULNERABLE VICTORIANS

The thousands of Victorian families languishing on long waiting lists for supported accommodation were once again ignored in the Budget by the arrogant Brumby Government, Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Community Services Mary Wooldridge said today.

The Budget provides not a single new supported accommodation bed for vulnerable Victorians with a mental illness or disability.

Next year’s funding for disability accommodation has in fact been cut by a massive 7.6 per cent or $45 million. In mental health there are also no new supported accommodation places funded.

“We are in urgent need of more supported accommodation beds to take pressure off thousands of caring families and to give individuals the choice they deserve,” said Ms Wooldridge.

“I have met with many ageing parents of children with a disability or mental illness who are too afraid to die for the thought of what will happen to their children when they are gone.

“These families received no relief from this Budget.

“The Budget does contain new investment in in-home supports for people with a disability and that is certainly welcome. But more in-home support is not the answer for thousands of families caring for a loved one with a severe and profound disability who needs long term supported accommodation,” Ms Wooldridge said.

There are currently 1370 people on the waiting list for disability accommodation and the Auditor-General says that due to a lack of planning this figure will blow out to 2500 by 2016.

“The Auditor-General also said earlier this year there had been no new beds for four years. No funding in the Budget now means there will have been no new supported accommodation beds for six years,” Ms Wooldridge said.

We also know that according to a report commissioned by the Labor Government in 2006, 46 per cent of mental health beds are blocked because of a lack of discharge options.

Once eventually out of hospital, 65 per cent of mental health patients in Secure Extended Care Units, and 30 per cent in Community Care Units, stay for more than 300 days because of a serious lack of supported accommodation in the community.

“These shameful statistics are the fruit of eight and a half years of inaction by the Labor Government, and this is not just the view of the Coalition,” Ms Wooldridge said.

In their most recent annual reports the independent accommodation watchdog, the Community Visitors, said there is a continuing crisis in unmet accommodation needs for people with a disability and also that there is a serious lack of accommodation options for people with a mental illness.

The Auditor-General also recently released a report into disability accommodation saying the Labor Government had not quantified future support needs and that a failure to invest in new places would see a massive waiting list blow-out.

The Coalition recently initiated a parliamentary review of supported accommodation because of the Brumby Government’s ongoing refusal to act.

“Victorian families dealing with the stress and demands of an adult child with a disability or mental illness have nothing to thank the Brumby Government for in this Budget,” Ms Wooldridge said.

For disability services and mental health the Budget also shows that:

• The average waiting time for people with a disability to gain access to a case manager blew out by 41 per cent to 45 days.
• 30 per cent of mental health patients had to wait in emergency departments for more than eight hours for a bed, well over the Government target of 20 per cent.
• The number of contact hours clients had with psychiatric support services fell last year by 6.5 per cent.