The Summer Foundation has welcomed the key recommendations relating to younger people with disability outlined in the final report of the Aged Care Royal Commission.
The recommendations closely align with the Young People in Residential Aged Care Strategy released by the Federal Government in 2020. The strategy aims to ensure no younger people enter or remain in aged care by 2025.
The Summer Foundation’s Head of Government Relations and Policy, Amelia Condi, said the recommendations are a major step forward in supporting young people with disability to live in a place they want to call home.
“We would like to congratulate the Aged Care Royal Commission for this tremendous achievement, which will no doubt make a significant difference to the lives of young people with disability who are living in aged care or a risk of entering aged care,” Amelia said.
“This result would not have been possible without the contributions of many young people with disability, their families and close others sharing their stories and experiences.”
When the Aged Care Royal Commission was announced in September 2018 the Summer Foundation organised a series of national workshops (#EveryStoryMatters) to provide 1:1 support to young people with disability and their close others who wanted to tell their stories. Close to 100 people were supported to make submissions and 8 of those were invited by the royal commission to give direct evidence during the week of hearings in September 2019 focused on young people in aged care. James Nutt, whose profile you can read on page 4, was one of the people who spoke to commissioners.
The Summer Foundation also made its own submission and Luke Bo’sher, who was then CEO, appeared at a royal commission hearing.
The Summer Foundation, Youngcare and Synapse jointly welcomed the Aged Care Royal Commission’s final report and encouraged the Federal Government to accept all the recommendations, particularly those that support the needs of people with disability.
The full report is available here.