NSW: Crisis in respite care says report

AAP General News (Australia)
12-03-1998
NSW: Crisis in respite care says report

By Lorna Knowles and Neil Sands

SYDNEY, Dec 3 AAP - A crisis in the respite care system was placing disabled children at
risk and tearing families apart, the New South Wales Community Services Commission said today.

The independent watchdog found the system, which was supposed to give the families of
disabled people a break by providing temporary care, to be hopelessly inadequate.

Commissioner Roger West said there were only 363 respite care beds for 8,000 users and 80
per cent of these were occupied by long-term residents, effectively leaving only 74 beds
state-wide.

Mr West demanded the 183 disabled children who had been left in respite care be immediately
moved to proper long-term care facilities.

The children, the youngest a two-year-old in Sydneys inner-west, were at risk of being
lost in, and abused by, a system designed to protect them, he said.

"It seems inexplicable that for 35 per cent of these children, the Minister for Community
Services (Faye Lo Po) has been appointed guardian and yet these children remain in such
unacceptable placements," he said.

Mr West found at least three rural areas had no respite services at all.

He said families deprived of respite care often collapsed from stress, resulting in the
disabled relative being institutionalised in full-time care.

A spokeswoman for parents in need of respite care, Mavis Williams, said violent behaviour
was common in the homes. In one case a staff member warned a mother her child could be
assaulted in he was placed there.

"She (was told), We can take him in but we cant guarantee his safety," Mrs Williams said.

"So she is now desperate for respite and doesnt know where to go."

Ms Lo Po said the government had earmarked an extra $14 million for respite care in this
years budget, of which $6.4 million had already been spent to provide care for 950 families.

But she admitted there was a long way to go before the system was satisfactory.

"It will take a lot of work, it will take a lot of money and it will take the Federal
Government getting its hand into its pocket and giving us the money it has denied us so far,"
she said.

She announced a taskforce to review the reports 24 recommendations and make reforms.

Opposition Community Services spokeswoman Patricia Forsythe said the government needed to
take a more creative approach to respite care.

"Respite at the moment is seen very much as bricks and mortar and beds in homes, there are
other ways of looking at respite and it involves dollars for families to provide for carers in
the home and provide care in other ways," she said.

The commission conducted two surveys of respite homes in March and September last year in
response to complaints from families and lobby groups.

The NSW Council for Intellectual Disability the state of respite care was scandalous and
the state and federal government should provide more resources to the area.

It said respite care was a right, not a privilege.

AAP ns/sb/rap

KEYWORD: RESPITE NIGHTLEAD

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