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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-07-21 Daily Xml
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YOUNG PEOPLE, NURSING HOMES

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:19): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations, representing the Minister for Disability, a question regarding young people in nursing homes.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Earlier this month I met with Bronwyn Morkham and Phillip Beddal from Young People in Nursing Homes and I was saddened and even outraged to learn that more than 6,000 young people with disabilities currently live in nursing homes. Nursing homes, as I am sure I do not need to point out, are designed to care for people in our community who are entering the latter stages of life and not for young people who have complex physical and social needs. While the elders in our communities certainly add to the fabric of our society, they have very different interests to young people. This results in young people in nursing homes often feeling isolated, from both their peers and society in general. In fact, many young people in nursing homes suffer from depression and related illnesses.

Aside from this, nursing homes are not geared towards caring for young people with disabilities and are unable to provide for the rehabilitation and therapy that many young people with disabilities require. My concerns are shared by the Julia Farr Youth Group, who raised this as an issue at a recent meeting with my office. I, too, am a member of this group and I found it very difficult to look into the faces of my fellow young disability advocates and friends and see the fear in their eyes that this situation may happen to them. Of course this situation could be avoided if governments around Australia properly supported people with disabilities to live in appropriate accommodation. My questions to the minister are:

1. How many Disability SA clients under the age of 65 years are currently living in nursing homes?

2. What action is the government taking to move these people into more appropriate accommodation?

3. What is the age of the youngest Disability SA client currently living in a nursing home?

4. What is the government doing to prevent any more young people ending up in this abhorrent situation?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:22): I thank the honourable member for her questions. Personally I have a great deal of sympathy for the placement of young people with disabilities in nursing homes. From my time as a former nurse many years ago when I worked in a number of aged care facilities in Victoria, I know from personal experience that a significant number of young people were in those facilities because there was quite simply nowhere else more suitable to place them, which was an absolute tragedy. The nursing and other staff in those facilities worked very hard to try to accommodate appropriate services for these young people in that home; however, it was always quite clear that they should not have been placed in that facility. If we had been able to find them alternative and more appropriate accommodation, we certainly would have done so.

One of the few pleasing things about this situation that I observed over the years was that with time the situation improved and there appeared to be fewer young people misplaced in these facilities. Certainly work was done to try to address that. However, it is a most inappropriate place to care for a person with a disability. I will refer the question to the Minister for Disability in another place and bring back a response.

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