Gippsland Election Candidates called to respond to Carers- Forum Panel
In the lead up to the State Election, Gippsland Carers have called on Candidates to respond to questions of more support for over 26,000 Gippsland caring families of people with disabilities and frailty who are receiving accommodation and care in the family home.
Speaking for the Association, President Jean Tops said; we have invited all Candidates contesting seats in Gippsland to attend our Carers Forum at Kernot Hall next Wednesday, 3rd of November. They are asked to speak to these and other critical issues that will influence caring family’s votes on 27th November”.
“It is commendable that major parties have made commitments to taking seriously the Productivity Commission Report into a National Disability Care and Support Scheme, due in mid 2011. However, the appalling and pressing issue, which cannot wait, is that they all ignore the current crisis existing due to the failure of care and support services funding to meet even urgent unmet needs”.
“Thousands of people with dependent disabilities are languishing on supported accommodation waiting lists, waiting for in-home help and day program services and many are now in crisis because their care and support system has broken down.
We are angry that we have to tell Politicians and Candidates yet again, that unpaid family carers are stressed beyond endurance and anxious about the future of their loved family members when they can no longer carry the burden of care.”
"Many families are so distressed that they are abandoning care and heartbreakingly taking their own lives and the lives of their loved ones with dependent disabilities, or relinquishing care to the state because the support system has failed all of them."
For many years now we have sought the support of government to provide funding to establish Region-based Carer Support Networks that will provide the grass roots support and encouragement needed now to sustain caring families into an unknown future.
We seek only a level playing field with funded service providers and funded advocacy organisations to help Carers with their caring role at the grass roots and where they live. Why is it so hard for politicians to get that?
Many thousands of the 2.6 million caring families across the nation have responded to Inquiry after Inquiry and Review after Review, with consistent pleas for more support, justice and a voice in policy and planning, to no avail.
We ask why it is that Carers yearly contributions of over $40Billion to the national and state budget bottom lines is not enough for governments to support our request? (Estimate by Access Economics)
“We want all Gippslanders to know that we are sick at heart and sick of the neglect. That we are determined to make sure all caring families weigh up their options in the compulsory votes they are asked to make at federal and state elections that put you all in your positions of power over our lives, Ms Tops said.”
“The aftermath of the federal elections and a hung parliament means that each of the Candidates must weigh up the same possibility in Victorian elections. All Parties have the capacity to make this small but desperately needed support service happen for caring families.
We look forward to positive responses when candidates meet Gippsland Carers on Wednesday 3 November 2010” For more information, please contact: Jean Tops, President: Mobile: 0402 650 375
