Last year, the softly spoken 24-year-old was told she had only one option: after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and spending almost a year in Epworth Hospital, she was to be moved into a nursing home.
According to the DHS, unless someone already receiving funding died, she was destined for a life of 5pm dinners and bed an hour later, instead of living at home with her family.
“They told me that no one gets the amount of funding I needed anyway,” says Busbridge, who by this stage was wheelchair-bound from the debilitating effects of the disease. “I said I was sorry for being alive.”
Busbridge had never considered the possibility of moving to a nursing home. “I thought nursing homes were just for old people,” she says. “I was devastated.”
The fact is more than 6000 people with disabilities under the age of 65 live in nursing homes across Australia – including 1500 in Victoria.
In 2006, the Council of Australian Governments funded a $244 million program to move young people with disabilities out of nursing homes and into purpose-built facilities that could meet their healthcare and social needs. The Younger People with Disability in Residential Aged Care Program also focused on diverting future admissions and providing specialist support to those who chose to stay in aged-care facilities.
Victoria received $60.2 million over five years to roll out its version of the program, My Future My Choice, and delivered 22 new accommodation and support facilities catering for 104 young people with disabilities. It also provided 70 support packages, including communication aids, better equipment such as electronic wheelchairs, and access to socialisation programs for patients who wanted to stay in nursing homes.
The program, which those in the health, disability and aged care sectors hailed as a life-saving initiative, came to an end last week as the five-year funding commitment drew to a close.
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