Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Carers Week raises national awareness of the valuable role carers play in our communities. Carers Week also provides an opportunity for carers to come together, support each other and share ideas and information. A survey of disability ageing and carers of 1998—some time ago—identified that there were 2.6 million carers, or 12.5 per cent of the population, and this has increased in recent years. One in five people is a primary carer, providing the majority of continuous assistance. In WA alone it was estimated, back in 2003, that there were 240,000 carers, 16 per cent of the population, 43 per cent of whom spent 40 hours or more on average each week providing care. At times, as we all know, that can be seven days a week and virtually 24 hours a day. These statistics show just how large our population of carers is, and I suspect it is just the tip of the iceberg.

From a local perspective, just one person—Coleen Clifton of Australind—is the carer of her sister Susan Hopkins. Coleen has been Susan’s carer for over four years. Susan was diagnosed with schizophrenia and diabetes. She lives on her own, cannot socialise very often and is partially independent. Weekly care includes managing all financial matters, managing her disability pension, doing her shopping, ensuring she has cleaned and ironed clothing, changing her bed linen, carrying out intermittent house cleaning and making sure that Susan has meals and that she looks after her personal hygiene and medication. Coleen makes sure Susan is taken to her doctor and associated medical appointments and for outings. She takes Susan away for a short holiday, usually to the beach at Dunsborough, a great part of the world. Susan receives a much appreciated disability pension and gratefully acknowledges and appreciates the reduced rental she enjoys in her Homes West home. But Coleen also assists with the care of her 88-year-old mother so that she can also live independently. She has family and grandchildren of her own, and other duties as well.

The other group I have come into close contact with recently is the Dementia Carers Group in Busselton—Lee Furnance and her group. I call these people the unsung and often unpaid heroes. Completely different to the official carers group, they often have in their homes a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a week job and they are often unable to access respite because there are not secure environments for the dementia sufferers. I thank all the carers for their loving care and support for those who so badly need it in Australia.