Report condemns years of Labor's supported accommodation inactionSunday, January 24, 2010 A new report shows Victorians with a mental illness or disability, their families and carers have been trapped in a ‘perpetual nightmare’ under Labor’s poorly resourced and crisis-driven supported accommodation system, Shadow Minister for Community Services Mary Wooldridge said today. A damning report by the Victorian Parliament’s Family and Community Development Committee reveals a supported accommodation system in crisis that has failed vulnerable Victorians at almost every turn. The Inquiry, initiated by the Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition, heard from more than 160 individuals, families and organisations and exposes a broken system which has left people with mental illness and/or disability languishing on waiting lists or in inappropriate accommodation for years. "This Inquiry has found that we urgently need more supported accommodation beds for people with a disability and/or mental illness, more respite care, more individual support packages and more reform and long-term planning to better support individuals and families," Ms Wooldridge said. While welcoming the Committee’s report, the Coalition released a Minority Report which highlights the Brumby Government’s failings and should embarrass the government and the embattled Minister for Mental Health and Community Services into urgent action. "I am disappointed that the despair and desperation that haunts so many Victorian families and individuals with a mental illness or disability is not detailed in the Committee’s report," Ms Wooldridge said. "I have seen the tears of ageing parents who are too afraid to die for fear that their vulnerable adult child will not receive proper care and accommodation. The urgency and sense of crisis expressed by these families is largely omitted from the report. "Victorian families have dedicated so much of their lives to caring for a loved one with a mental illness or disability and the greatest respect that the Victorian Government could show them is to urgently and comprehensively act on these recommendations. "It is appalling that the Brumby Government does not care enough to provide the support and much needed accommodation vulnerable Victorians desperately need. "After waiting ten years, vulnerable Victorians and their families know they cannot trust the Brumby Government to provide the support and accommodation they deserve," Ms Wooldridge said.
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