Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

For the seven years I have been fortunate enough to have been in this parliament, I have been raising issues of concern to disabled people and their carers with successive ministers and in the party rooms. The one issue that I have consistently been raising is young people in nursing homes. That has come to the point where tomorrow COAG will meet and perhaps this subject will be on the agenda. As at June last year we had 6,449 young people in nursing homes. Thirty per cent of these people are acquired brain injury patients, 27 per cent have a physical disability, 23 per cent have a neurological disability and 20 per cent have an intellectual or psychiatric disability. In New South Wales alone there are 100 people under 60 with MS in a nursing home and there are more than 300 people at risk of entering a nursing home because of the inability to access support services.

I have been raising their plight, as I said, for seven years. Something has to be done. There is no greater issue in our community than to have a young person—mentally sound, mentally capable, but with a disability—confined to a nursing home where their lives are completely taken over by the problems of the ageing and disabled. I find that absolutely unacceptable.

It is predicted that there will be about 10,000 young people in nursing homes by 2007 if the current rate of entry is maintained. There is actually a young person entering an aged care facility somewhere in Australia every single day. Something has to be done. This is a national issue, an issue on which the Commonwealth and the states should be working together to overcome. There should be a planning process so that we can provide quality of life not only for the young people who have been unfortunately confined to nursing homes because there is nowhere else for them to go but also for their families and friends, so that they can have continued interaction and relationship with our young people in nursing homes.

As I said, for seven years I have been raising this issue with successive ministers. Tomorrow, thankfully, this is on the agenda for COAG. I look forward to some meaningful solutions from the COAG discussions tomorrow so that we can start to put in place a future life plan for young people—to whom this can happen at any time. Our child may be involved in a car accident tomorrow, and they may then be confined to a nursing home because there are no support services available. I urge some meaningful discussions in COAG. (Time expired)

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