NSW — DISABLED
young adults will be given assistance to live at home and
find work under a $1 billion funding package to ensure
they are treated as "equal citizens".
The Premier, Morris Iemma, last
night announced a five-year plan to revamp disability
services and usher in a "fairer and more caring
society".
"We want to engender a whole new
spirit so that people with disabilities are treated as
equal fellow citizens," he said in a speech at the Sydney
Institute.
"We want them to be valued and
fulfilled members of our community, empowered to achieve
their full human potential."
The additional funding, to be
included in next month's budget and implemented over five
years, includes an extra $235 million for about 2000
young adults with disabilities, reversing previous cuts
and providing additional days of care in post-school
programs. Care will be increased from three days a week
to four for people with moderate disabilities and five
days for the severely disabled. "This will give parents a
better chance to maintain employment," Mr Iemma
said.
"But most importantly it will give
young school leavers more opportunities to learn skills
and enjoy the company of others."
Belinda Epstein-Frisch, of Family
Advocacy, a disabilities organisation, said the measures
would allow disabled people to move from the "back wards
of institutions" into the community.
"This injection of resources will
provide hope to people with disabilities and their
families that the system is changing. We need to help
people to build real lives, not just contain them," she
said.
Mr Iemma, who named disability
services as a priority when he took office last August,
said the Government would provide an extra 1000 places in
supported accommodation, including 320 intensive in-home
places. The measures add 1260 respite care places and
include $83 million to provide early intervention and
therapy for children.
The director of the Council of
Social Service of NSW, Gary Moore, said the measures were
welcome but overdue.
"This is a pretty comprehensive
package that the Government has been talking about for
years but never delivered.
"But it is an incredibly
significant package and it sounds like they have finally
got it right."
But Mr Moore said more money was
required to ensure younger people with disabilities were
not forced to live in nursing homes.
"Some people suggest there are up
to 4000 people with disabilities who are up to 45 years
old living in nursing homes. This package will only buy a
couple of hundred places for them."
The Minister for Disability
Services, John Della Bosca, said the Government would
phase out larger residential centres by developing them
into village-style accommodation. The Peat Island centre
in Brooklyn would be closed and replaced by a 20-bed
centre and a retirement village for 100 people with
disabilities.
But Mr Moore said the Government
should ensure that larger centres were not replaced by a
series of mini-institutions.
The Opposition spokesman on
disabilities, John Ryan, said NSW still had less
supported accommodation than other states.
"Only the most desperate in NSW can
apply for housing."
