The Block’s Shaynna Blaze attacks PM Tony Abbott over budget cuts to health program By: Shannon Molloy - ShowBiz Reporter From: News Corp Australia REALITY television personality Shaynna Blaze has attacked the Prime Minister Tony Abbott and described his government as “nasty” over stinging budget cuts to a health program. The Block Glasshouse judge and interior designer has expressed her outrage at the decision last week to quietly dump the Dementia and Severe Behaviours Supplement. The modest payment of $16 per day supported more than 20,000 carers of people with dementia. Her own mother Annette has battled the disease for 15 years and while she didn’t receive the payment due to living in a nursing home, Blaze has taken up the issue on behalf of others. “It doesn’t sound like much but this payment adds up to about $100 per week and that can make a huge difference, especially for those carers on low incomes,” she said. “Scrapping a vital support measure like this could be the difference between staying in your own home and being forced into a nursing facility.” She took to Twitter to ask the Prime Minister for an explanation as to why the program was quietly axed and recipients given just a day’s notice. “This feels very sly and underhanded. It’s nasty. “Carers have limited means anyway so 24 hours’ notice is horrific. This was such a quick decision and many might not have even known until the money stopped coming. “I feel for all of these people being thrown into chaos.” Blaze said her statement was not a political one but rather an issue of “humanity” and pointed to staggering figures to demonstrate why this “shortsighted” decision was the wrong one. Estimates indicate Australia faces a shortage of more than 150,000 paid and unpaid carers for people with dementia by 2029. Nursing facilities are already stretched in many cases, Blaze said, so keeping people at home for as long as is reasonable is about both dignity and economic sustainability. “I don’t think the government is taking into account the long-term impact of pushing people into nursing homes. “My mum became high care really quickly, sadly. She needed to be in a nursing home only a few years after being diagnosed. “However we had the means to ensure she could receive appropriate care. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars upfront to secure a place plus ongoing payments, and a lot of people can’t manage that.” News that the payment would be hastily wrapped up came as a shock to many industry groups. Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield dropped the bombshell in the Senate on Wednesday and payments ceased just one day later. “I have not taken this decision lightly,” Senator Fifield said. “But there was no other responsible course of action in the circumstances.” The Senator blamed the previous Labor Government, saying the scheme had far exceeded demand and its budget had blown out. The lobby group Aged and Community Services Australia condemned the move, saying it now wondered which other health support programs might be facing the scrap heap. The organisation’s chief executive, Adjunct Professor John Kelly, said the “knee-jerk reaction” ignored the reality of the needs of older Australians. “There is a substantial body of residents in aged care with significant dementia-related behaviours,” Professor Kelly said. “This supplement allowed better supported care for those people. I received many calls from providers wondering if this was a sign of how things would be done in the future.” An estimated 332,000 Australians live with dementia but the country’s rapidly ageing population means that figure is expected to jump by one-third to 400,000 in the next decade. Experts say without a medical breakthrough, the number of people with dementia will reach 900,000 by 2050. Alzheimer’s Australia said it was disappointed by the termination, but understood the reasons behind it and supported the need for a more fiscally sustainable program. “It’s vital that a new scheme is implemented as soon as possible to deliver the original objective of ensuring scarce resources within residential aged care funding benefit those with the greatest needs,” a spokesman for the organisation said. “People with dementia should not suffer because of a Government expenditure blow out.”
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 03:35:53 +0000
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