Source: ABC News Online

A conference being held in Melbourne is seeking new ways to get disabled people into better care and out of nursing homes.

Dr Bronwyn Morkham from the National Alliance for Young People in Nursing Homes says thousands of people are in inappropriate accommodation.

She says the Commonwealth started to try to fix the problem in 2006, but there needs to be a more integrated approach.

"The level of funding that was put into place by COAG [the Council of Australian Governments] is vastly inferior to what was needed," she said.

"So one of the things that we're calling for is an increased level of funding to go into the initiative going forward, but also to look at the systemic policy issues that need to be addressed if we are going to go forward with this problem."

Dr Morkham says more funding and a more organised approach is needed.

"It is not putting too fine a point on it to say young people's lives are on the line in this issue," she said.

"They can't afford to wait and we do need to act in a more timely and effective manner than we have been generally."