Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (12:21): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week from 8 to 15 November 2015;

(b) acknowledges the role that Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week plays in the education of spinal cord injuries and what can be done to prevent one; and

(c) praises organisations for their support of people living with spinal cord injuries, their families and carers.

I would like, first of all, to acknowledge Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week, which is from 8 to 15 November. I would also like to acknowledge the sad and unfortunate contribution road crashes make to the number of Australians who have suffered spinal cord injuries and thank the organisations assisting those South Australians who live day-to-day with spinal cord injuries.

About 100 people are killed in crashes on South Australian roads each year and another 700 people are seriously injured. I think it is opportune to just mention my support for what the government is now championing in the way of updates to the cycling laws, and I think these are extremely timely. I for one support the safe use of roads, and I believe that, as all South Australians, we can embrace and safely use these roads and footpaths together shared between cars, cyclists and pedestrians.

I think that at the heart of Adelaideans' values is that civil society is underpinned by care for all, and I urge all of us to ensure that we are caring of others and ourselves, and we need to embrace these new laws. While much attention is given to fatalities, serious crashes can often result in permanent injury to the victim and have substantial impacts on families and friends, as well as on the community in general.

I have seen first-hand those horrific situations. I have seen them both as a volunteer ambulance officer being first to the scene, sorting through who to deal with first and how to triage a situation and as a registered nurse in an emergency service of a major South Australian hospital. It is not just about the suffering of those victims, it is about their loved ones, not only at the time of that accident but also continuing with the ongoing trauma which can extend over many, many years of pain, of rehabilitation and care.

Families can be changed in a split second, in an instance. I have also experienced this on a personal note through an amazing family member. I have seen him, from when he was a young man involved in a vehicle accident, endure the trials and tribulations that he has been challenged with over the many years.

Amazingly, just a couple of Saturday nights ago, I was at a retirement village function and I saw who I believed was someone I had cared for many years ago. He is now a man in his 60s, and I got talking to him, and rightly so. He was a fellow I had looked after as a young trainee nurse back when I was 17 or 18 years of age at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the rehabilitation centre.

At that stage, this man was in his early 20s. He could not walk, he could not talk, he could not feed himself, dress himself, or shower himself. His dignity had been totally stripped away in an instant due to a motorbike accident. He had a tracheostomy, and he was only just at that point breathing on his own. He was lucky to be alive. As he talked, what stuck in his mind was not the fact that he had this terrible accident or the fact that he had actually been through years of rehabilitation to the extent where he had some sense of ability to care for himself, but it was, in fact, the terrible music that we apparently used to play to him when he was rehabilitating—The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. We thought that would be something he would like, and after all these years he was able to tell me that he absolutely hated it!

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Or learnt to.

Ms DIGANCE: Or learnt to, yes. Most spinal cord injuries are permanent and life changing, as we are all aware. Historically, the most common age group to have a spinal cord injury is in young people aged between 15 and 24. For these people, the simplest tasks—things that we take for granted—become the greatest challenges, as I have just illustrated.

For the unfortunate victims of spinal injuries, the state government provides support through the National Disability Agreement and the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of South Australia. Each year, the state government contributes over $87,000 to subsidise individual family or group-counselling services and close to $100,000 to help finance assistance provided by registered nurses who assist those suffering spinal cord injuries and learn new skills to help them manage everyday tasks, such as nutrition and general wellbeing, exercise and fitness, and skincare, including recognition of early warning signs and appropriate care and management of pressure sores and ulcers.

As part of Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week, the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of South Australia will host a seminar at the Klemzig Community Hall on 11 November and will also place a public awareness stand at the Adelaide Central Market on 13 November. I urge all who are able to visit this stall and to attend this community meeting. The association is also conducting a schools poster competition in which students are asked to design a poster reflecting, 'What does wheelchair friendly mean to you?' As we go about our own lives, immersed in our own business, I think it is appropriate that we take some time out to think about how it is for those who are in other situations, such as those who are in wheelchairs.

Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week gives road users a chance to reflect on the trauma caused by road crashes and the impact on the victims and their families. It provides us all with an opportunity to reflect on the importance of road safety. We all have a responsibility to our families, our friends and others to make sure we return home safely and to ensure all other road users are also safe around us. I urge everyone to take the time to think about the importance of acting responsibly on our roads. Drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians—road safety is the responsibility of everyone.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (12:28): I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Elder and I know that everyone in this place wishes all of their constituents, all the people of South Australia, a safe and fulfilling life, not restricted by what can be absolutely devastating limitations and injuries caused through spinal injury.

I encourage people in this place: next time you go to eat a T-bone steak or a lamb chop, the bit of bone you will see in the steak or chop is a part of the backbone—unless it is a shoulder chop, obviously. Just inside, there is a little C-shaped hollow that usually has some soft white material in there, and that is a bit of the spinal cord. Just have a look how soft that spinal tissue is. You remember, that is in your back. That is protected in a tube of bone and these discs between your vertebrae; that is in there. You just see how soft it is and you just imagine how easy it is for it to be damaged.

That is what happens in some of the most simple accidents we see around the place. It does not always have to be a horrific car crash or a fall off the roof of a house. It can be as simple as a fall from a metre or so above, or even a bad trip in some cases. When you are coming down the back stairs in this place, they are very narrow, so be very careful, because if you fall or slip, you could be Christopher Reeve mark 2. We all remember Christopher Reeve, the Superman. He certainly was not a superman other than in the fictional movies.

I urge everybody in this place to be very careful with their own backs, but also to encourage everybody else to be aware of their personal safety to protect their back. While there is a huge area of investigation and development in repair and rehabilitation of spinal injuries, if you inflict a severe injury on your spinal cord you are in deep trouble. Depending on where that injury is, you may be a paraplegic or a quadriplegic, you may end up being able to use your arms to help move yourself around the place, or you may be like Christopher Reeve having 24/7 care. It is absolutely vital.

We look forward to stem cell therapy being a part of a way of getting nerves to grow back, because nerves are particularly difficult to grow back and particularly slow to grow back. I cannot emphasise this enough to everybody here, to be so careful, not just with your own back but also everybody around you—and talk to your constituents about it. Make sure that we do recognise these weeks of awareness to their fullest. Put a poster up in your office if you can get one; I am sure they have them around the place. Certainly, make sure that you put it on your Facebook sites and your webpages to make sure that everybody is thinking about it. You do not have to be totally fixated, but just be aware of the consequences of your actions, because in many cases there is no going back.

This motion is a very important one. One of the groups that sometimes gets forgotten in these motions—and I am not saying that in any disparaging way here—are the people who look after people with severe injuries like spinal injuries. The 24/7 care that we saw with Christopher Reeve is going on every day. It is going on not far from here, in our hospitals and in homes.

I went to the annual general meeting of Carers SA on Tuesday morning to help them celebrate their 25^th birthday. I thank Carers SA for what they are doing in South Australia, supporting the many carers. They are not volunteers these people; they are not volunteers, but they do care very willingly for the people they are caring for. I thank Carers SA for supporting the many carers we have in South Australia who are looking after people with all sorts of disabilities. In many cases, it is spinal injury that has caused these particular situations.

This is a very important motion. I hope that we all get behind this motion. I hope that during the week of 8 to 15 November we make sure that we are out there, aware, encouraging the awareness of spinal injury and all taking care of our own backs. Watch your back—not just politically, but I mean physically.

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (12:33): I will be very brief. I want to congratulate the member for Elder for bringing this motion to the house. I, too, want to recognise Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week, which goes from 8 to 15 November. There is a link with the preceding motion as well, where we look at remembering those who have tragically lost their lives on South Australian roads, but at the same time we have to recognise the many thousands of South Australians who have suffered horrific injuries as a result of motor vehicle accidents, many of whom have done irreparable damage to their spinal cord and now require the constant care that they get from their families and carers. In saying that, I too praise the organisations for their support of people living with spinal cord injuries, their families and carers.

The member for Morphett said it is not just motor vehicle accidents and, of course, that is the truth. I recall, when I was in the fire brigade, going to many motor vehicle accidents and seeing the devastating effect of those accidents on the people involved in them but also the impact it had on their families and friends.

There are other activities: jetty jumping, for example. As a youngster I jumped off the Henley jetty, and my sons have jumped off the Henley jetty, but we have seen people who have suffered spinal cord injuries as a result of jetty jumping. Usually it is people who are probably less familiar with the beach, because there is nothing wrong with jumping off the jetty at high tide, but you do not do it at low tide because it is a recipe for disaster. I have seen lifesavers having to rescue a lot of people in situations like that where people have jumped off the jetty and done horrific damage to themselves.

The point is that it can happen anywhere. We saw the tragic circumstance of the rugby league player recently in Queensland, and the trauma that he went through and is continuing to go through. He is a shining example of a person who has suffered an injury. I know that Australia will watch with interest as to how he manages his life and what inroads are being made with respect to research that will eventually make those people who have spinal cord injuries live better lives than otherwise would be the case without that particular research.

It can happen anywhere at any time. My friend and colleague the member for Ashford has just mentioned Neil Sachse. We remember that incident all those years ago and the work that Neil, through his foundation, is doing with respect to spinal cord injury and research. I thank him and congratulate him and other organisations that are raising money for that badly needed research.

It can happen at any time, and I cannot think of anything worse. I look at my kids who are 24 and 27 now. We all do things that we look back and reflect upon and say, 'Gee, I was lucky.' I just shiver when I think about those types of injuries is happening to anyone but particularly when I think of my children.

It can happen at any time in any form of activity really. To that extent this very motion is about raising the awareness of spinal injury but, at the same time, acknowledging the role that this week plays in education about spinal cord injuries and what can be done to prevent them. I urge everyone here—we all have a role; I think it is a collective responsibility—to make sure that we play our part as leaders of the community but also linking with organisations within our electorates to help raise the awareness of spinal injury and to reduce the incidence of it and to do what we can to assist in the ongoing call for funds for research into these particular injuries. I commend the motion to the house and I thank the member for Elder for bringing it to the house's attention.

Mr WINGARD (Mitchell) (12:38): I rise in support of the motion to recognise Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week from 8 to 15 November 2015 as a national campaign that aims to create a more inclusive and accessible community for everyone. It is raising awareness about what it means to have a spinal cord injury and that people who have a spinal cord injury are involved in all aspects of life and are contributing to the community in so many different ways.

I would like to take this opportunity to read a Facebook post put up by some family friends of mine about their daughter who suffered a spinal cord injury: 30 years ago she found herself in a wheelchair. Her mother writes that she was dragged from the back seat of a rolled car at 17 by a young ambulance attendant on a country road and taken to Hampstead Centre. She spent 10 years in a revolutionary, scientific, functional electro-stimulation program with Dr Miranda Jelbart, and Dr Ruth Marshall, to get paras to walk again.

She founded the Spinal Research Fund of Australia with her mum, dad, some of her dad's wise mates and younger brother, Josh, raising over $2 million to find a cure. She represented her country 17 times in international sport in two disciplines—swimming and basketball—a world record in there somewhere for swimming. In her finest hour she gave birth to twin boys, Jeremy and Travis, who I know are the pride of her life.

I read that out on behalf of Dawn and Dennis Ferrett and their daughter, Melissa. I too support the motion to recognise Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week, and Melissa, at this moment and the great things she has done since the accident that put her in a wheelchair.

Ms COOK (Fisher) (12:39): I rise today to support the member for Elder's motion. I am very pleased to be able to speak on this motion in relation to spinal cord injury on behalf of the many patients I have looked after over the years who have unfortunately come to grief through many ways and suffered spinal cord injury.

Spinal cord injury is one of those things that happens out of tragedy and unexpected circumstances and often is not recognised immediately either at the point of injury. It is something that, both as a nurse within a hospital and as a St John Ambulance volunteer and also as a retrieval nurse, I have had drilled into me over the years how very, very careful we have to be when assessing patients in respect to their injuries and how very careful we have to be in regard to moving them.

I listened with interest to the description given by the member for Morphett in relation to the spinal cord and how delicate it is. In fact, as a student nurse I observed some spinal surgery and watched the delicate nature of the work doctors have to undertake within the spinal cord. It gives you a great appreciation for their steadiness and how adept of hand they have to be in order to handle such a delicate piece of body tissue.

As a retrieval nurse going out into the field, often the experiences that you have leave a lasting impression. I will quickly refer to several patients who I have looked after early in their trauma caused by motor vehicle accidents out in the country. One day, it was extremely hot (probably 40ºC in Adelaide) and, as part of the retrieval team, I was dispatched in the Rescue Helicopter down to the South-East, somewhere between Keith and the next town along, the name of which escapes me at the moment, I am afraid.

We were dispatched to this motor vehicle accident on this hot day. It is always with a degree of anxiety that you travel down there in the Rescue Helicopter and try to put your ducks in a row, so to speak, within your head in order to be able to prepare yourself for what you might face. A scene which confronts you, which relates back to the previous motion as well regarding road trauma, is often a scene of chaos, with many things attributing to that in terms of the number of vehicles, the number of emergency services workers who attend and the number of people who may be affected.

On this one particular day, I arrived at the scene and there was one vehicle off to the side. Unfortunately, this vehicle was covered with a tarpaulin and, as an emergency worker, you know what that means: there is deeper tragedy hidden within that vehicle. On the road itself was another car which was upturned and almost unrecognisable and very, very silent. As yet, the jaws of life had not started to operate and, even in the presence of some 20 emergency service workers, there was very little being said.

As I approached with the doctor on landing, we walked up to that vehicle and there was a young woman still strapped in her seat in the upturned vehicle, pinned between what used to be a steering wheel and driver's foot well and her chair. She was not going anywhere; she was unable to move. Really early in the piece, just by looking into her eyes, I could tell that she actually knew what she was facing and the type of journey she was going on. In a way that many patients do, she reassured us that she was okay. She said, 'It's okay. I know I can't feel my legs but I know that it's because I'm currently pinned.' She almost tried to bring a bit of a sense of humour to the subject. I remember her nodding, saying one thing but actually what she was meaning was quite the opposite.

So as we very carefully assisted her on the side of the road, by giving her fluids and attending to a few other things, we worked through in our minds how we were going to actually get her out of this car, from an upside-down position in a vehicle that was no longer giving us any space and on a road that was some 40º from the external environment—as you can imagine, on the hot bitumen it was more like 50 to 60º as we were standing there. Again, the emergency service workers provided enormous relief with tarpaulins and shelters as well as ice and iced-water towels, etc., to give us some sense of comfort. It took us a good hour to release the woman from the car, with her all the time trying to be positive about her future.

As everyone can imagine, I could talk all day about this particular experience. The whole time we were talking to her she had the sense that she still had a future. She would remain very positive, and she was very confident that there would be some resolution to her injuries and there was some sense that the health system and we would look after her. We got her back to the hospital, to cut that story short, and she did survive and she did have a complete injury in her spinal chord which meant that there was essentially no hope of her getting movement or sensation back in her lower limbs. We left her in the care of the emergency department and she moved on to long term care within the high dependency unit and then the rehabilitation centre.

Those types of beginnings to tragedy, and the jetty jumping and the other accidents that can happen in a split second, actually begin the journey of bravery and challenges for people within the spinal injury system, and I absolutely take off my hat to all the victims and sufferers of spinal chord injury I have come across in my life. They absolutely do see the world in a positive way and achieve amazing things. We talked about Neil Sachse before, another inspiration in terms of where they can end up against adversity in terms of their sporting achievements, academic achievements and family life.

I am very grateful that we, as a community, can provide some opportunities for people with spinal cord injury, and it is with great pleasure that I stand here today and acknowledge the challenging start to journeys which can end up becoming quite inspirational and positive. I commend the motion.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright) (12:48): I want to speak very briefly about this motion, and commend the member for Elder for bringing this to the house. Spinal injury is something that can happen to any of us at any time. It is one of those split-second, life-changing moments that can occur in any of our lives, and that is whether it is an injury that we may suffer ourselves or a loved one being injured.

Too often we see young people hurt in this way, an injury sustained as a result of youthful exuberance, whether that is riding a motorbike, a car accident, diving off the jetty or from involvement in sport, and we have seen very prominent sports stars who have been hurt during their sporting career. Certainly, as a parent and as a mother of sons I was particularly anxious to get my boys through their teenage years and early 20s safely. I think it is fair to say that each time they backed a car out of our driveway my heart was in my mouth until I heard the vehicle return.

Too often our young people, young men in particular, are badly injured in car accidents. I think that is one of the things I am pleased about is that when I was Minister for Road Safety we brought into play new rules in relation to learner and P-plate drivers to keep young people safe. We have reduced speed limits on many country roads, and we know there are much higher deaths of young people in the country, but young men in particular are injured badly. I am pleased to say that I think we are seeing a reduction in both the injuries and the road deaths of young people as a result of the introduction of these particular measures that were brought in in relation to licences.

It is a huge challenge for someone who has been injured to come to terms with that injury and what it might mean for their life and it is a huge challenge for those people who are providing the care and love for that person. It is an enormous obstacle just trying to deal with day-to-day issues, those things that we take for granted. Again, as Minister for Housing, we had a major redevelopment at Woodville West and I was very proud that that development was the first age accredited development in South Australia.

Within that development we have some apartment buildings and some of those apartments were provided for people with a disability so that we could provide support and services for those people without actually being in their home, so electronically providing support for people. There was some pushback in the initial stages in relation to that, with people saying, 'Well, you know, you don't want to have too many people in wheelchairs in the one building.' I said, 'Well, in fact, what we need to realise is that whether you're in a wheelchair or you're able to walk normally, you're just a normal person. You want to do exactly the same things.' In numbers comes normality. We did not want people in that area being the odd one out, if you like, so it is really important that we are able to provide housing developments and support services that very much allow people to get on with those day-to-day activities.

We have seen amazing medical advances. The sorts of surgery that our medical people can undertake now and get amazing results from is just astonishing and they continue to provide, I think, real hope for those who have suffered spinal cord injuries. There are amazing role models for people, particularly, I think, young people, who give them the very powerful message that there is life after injury, but not just life after injury, quality life after injury, and that is really important. What is vital and what this Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week is all about is educating people and preventing those injuries from occurring in the first place.

It is really important that our young ones understand the fragility of their spines. The consequences, potentially, of foolish and enthusiastic actions, not meant in any way to cause harm but which can actually bring about a life-changing event. I think it is fair to say that young ones do think they are invincible. I took great comfort from an article I read some years ago about brain development. Those of us who have had teenagers, and I describe myself as the survivor of two teenage sons, but there are occasions where one of them will walk in the house and it is like an alien has arrived in your house and then maybe two or three years later the little person that you had originally arrives back in the house.

What this article explained was that it is not just puberty. We often say, 'Oh well, it's puberty. It's hormones.' It is not just that. Their brain goes through a rewiring process, and they become much like a two year old. If you say to a two year old standing on a table, 'Jump off,' they will jump off.

Teenagers do not have a sense of their vulnerability and they can understand that something is dangerous but they will do it anyway and then they do not understand why they did it. I will not regale my personal stories but suffice to say if my father had any idea of half of the things I did as a teenager, the poor old soul would roll over in his grave—travelling in cars at ridiculous speeds, doing all sorts of silly things like that, with a sense of invulnerability, that a 21 year old was old and that you are here forever and nothing can really hurt you.

It is really important that our young ones understand the fragility, that our workers understand how to care for themselves also while they are working. In saying that, I want to pay tribute to all those who are working so hard to support those who have suffered a spinal cord injury, whether they are people working in our health services, families and friends who support them, helping them to get on with their lives and those who are working so hard—and many people have mentioned Neil Sachse—to raise funds to ensure that our medical experts have the funding they need to continue with much needed research into this area.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (12:56): I would like to make a few comments. I do so from my ministerial roles as Minister for Disabilities and Minister for Road Safety but also as a local member. I would like to reflect on the heartache and suffering of people who have actually incurred a spinal cord injury and their families who often become their carers for quite a bit of their life.

I fully support this motion to recognise Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week. Anything we can do to raise funds or anything we can do to raise awareness about the injury and impact it has on people's lives would be very helpful. As the member for Wright has said, it will help people to ensure they take more care and help young people understand that they are very vulnerable.

From a road safety point of view, while we quite rightly often concentrate on the loss of life and the unnecessary loss of life in many cases, there are many more people who are injured seriously and in a lot of cases have a spinal cord injury whose lives are changed forever. While cars have become safer and, therefore, people are more protected when they are on the road, we need to also ensure that we understand the message about speed on the roads. The more speed we have, the reality is we all make mistakes on the road, but our ability to recover from that or stop a major injury occurring is reduced. That is why I talk about reducing speed on our roads because we are trying to ensure that what could be a life threatening crash could become a lesser one and one that could result in major injury could become a minor one.

The other thing is that these injuries change the lives, not only of the people who are the victims of the spinal injury but also those around them, and they change them for a long time. That is why I am very supportive of the new cycling laws which are designed, in essence, to say that cyclists are very vulnerable on our roads and that, while there are cyclists who are very annoying on the roads and do the wrong thing on our roads, the reality is that when you compare a cyclist and a motor vehicle they cannot compete with cars. That is why we need to make sure that the new cycling laws increase awareness of people's vulnerability when they are on the roads. Therefore, I support those laws that increase awareness.

What I have noticed is that even though there is some controversy around the new laws regarding cycling, what it has meant is that people actually now think about it and talk about it. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.