By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A DANDENONG-based disability advocacy service has said that hundreds of people with disabilities are being left waiting for individual support packages in Melbourne’s south-east.
The Disability Action Southeast group – based at the Disability Resource Centre in Dandenong – has launched a state election campaign around the “critical” issue, stating that it has never seen the situation so dire.
About 1200 people in its region are languishing on the Disability Support Register, most of them in need of an individual support package which allows people to live in the community.
The packages cover aids, equipment, transport, housework help and personal care, helping people with a disability to live in the community rather than in a nursing home.
DRC advocate Katrina Newman recently unsuccessfully pleaded for a support package for women in their thirties who were afflicted with multiple sclerosis.
The client was wheelchair bound, had lost the use of her arms and her mother, who is her full-time carer, was set to be out of action for four months due to surgery.
Ms Newman said the Department of Human Services deemed the client’s situation as not urgent enough for help.
“If that client isn’t at crisis point, who is?
“I haven’t seen it so difficult to get a package in my 12 years as an advocate. Until the past year, I’ve never had to advocate for packages.”
DAS founding member Shaunagh Stevens has waited more than a dozen years for a package.
She said that, as a result, her husband has been overwhelmed with balancing work duties and caring for her – the strain taking a toll on their relationship.
“I’ve been told I’m unlikely to get a package unless we separate.”
Ms Newman said a boost would “mean the world” to people with a disability.
She said a recent government announcement for 658 extra packages over four years “didn’t scratch the surface”.
“I find it frightening to think that these people have to wait such unsustainable lengths of time for packages of care, or until the roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).”
A spokeswoman for Disability Services and Reform Minister Mary Wooldridge said 2000 new packages had been delivered since 2010, taking the total to more than 15,000.
Last week the Coalition pledged $18 million for 400,000 additional hours of community-based respite for families and carers of people with a disability.
ALP disability spokeswoman Jenny Mikakos said the number of people waiting on the Disability Support Register had increased every year “under the Liberals”.
“Yet whilst demand is growing, fewer people received an Individual Support Package in 2013-14 compared to Labor’s last budget in 2010-11.”
According to Department of Human Services figures, 4392 people were listed as waiting on the statewide register as of 30 June.
Nearly 3000 of them were waiting for an individual support package.
To sign the DAS petition go to http://goo.gl/eTjSsV
