It is the first time a target has been set and the Government is relying on the rollout of the $22 billion NDIS to meet it, together with the expansion of the Specialist Disability Accommodation market.
Mr Bo'Sher said the ambitious rollout timeline is part of the problem — people with disabilities are not getting NDIS funding quickly enough to modify their houses or look for an SDA unit."So about how we make sure that someone who's in hospital transitions into the NDIS rather than into the aged care system."
Kirby is fortunate she lives in Geelong where the NDIS has been rolled out, helping her to buy a SDA unit and a place of her own to call home.Just 250 kilometres away in Shepparton, Vicki Wilkinson is still waiting. She took the extraordinary step of escaping from her aged care home four years ago to move in with her new husband Michael, but it was a clandestine operation done with very little support.Vicki suffered a workplace accident but it was subsequent surgery that made her disability even worse. In her early 40s, and with two children, she was left with no choice but to go to an aged care home where was told she would stay for the rest of her life.
If they were prepared to move to be closer to each other rather than close to their family then the economics of building them specialised facilities would be far more workable. Any group that is spread widely and thinly is much harder to cater for.
I recently visited an aged care home and there was a young person there. He was friendly and cheerful with everyone as he got around in his wheelchair despite his mental and physical struggles. An inspiration really but it pulled at my heart that he could be there for 30 years
Because we spend too much money on bringing people to Australia from failed countries and setting them up for life here while at the same time forgetting about our own people .