Media Release
13 October, 2009
When love is not enough: How many fractured families will it take for government to
provide shared-care arrangements for families caring for children with very severe
disabilities?
Party Secretary of the Carers Alliance, Mary Lou Carter says “The Blinman family love their son, but love is
not enough to sustain the family when they get no sleep, are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and
the State refuses to provide adequate respite and other support for the family to survive. Yet the State
government will embark on a very expensive out-of-home-care option which costs the NSW taxpayer
$10,000 per week for a child in an accommodation arrangement other than shared-cared.”
“Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights states that: The family is the natural and
fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.”
However, in NSW
the exception is if you are a family with a child who has disabilities so severe that the very survival of the
family is in jeopardy. The State will not assist you, in fact it will actively ensure the breakdown of the family
by refusing to provide the respite and support needed to survive and thrive.” says Carter.
“One gets an inkling into the level of care needed by Aaron when even with enormous government support,
the foster family caring for Aaron collapsed after six months. Inflexible policy is forcing families into
unpalatable decisions which tear the family apart. What brutal message is the government sending, via the
Blinman family to other families who are also in such desperate need: We will assist only after your family
collapses?” says Mary Lou Carter.
“The Minister and Director General of Disabilities say group homes are institutions with all the negative
connotations surrounding that word. They also say that the traditional nuclear family is the only acceptable
family grouping which can provide a nurturing environment. This will be news to disability service providers,
people with disabilities and their families, friends and supporters. Those statements beg the question: are
family relationships only nurtured by living under the same roof?”
“
There are some children whose disabilities are so severe that without help the family will breakdown, that
does not mean they are not honoured and loved, what it does mean is the family needs help to survive.”
says Carter
“The solution is the shared-care model, where the children can reside a few nights a week in a residential
setting near the family, in a settled environment with the same carers and support staff, within easy driving
distance of the family, where they can attend school and then go home to the family on the weekends. The
children are settled and secure in a stable environment, the family can pop in and say hello, the parents can
work and gain some financial independence and have an opportunity to get out of the welfare and poverty
cycle. It also provides the resilience needed to care for all their children and certainly ensures their child with
disabilities continues to “enjoy and be part of the life of their families”. The reality lived by the Blinman family
and their little boy Aaron is the unacceptable alternative.”
Various options of the shared-care model were recommended in Protecting Vulnerable Children: A National
Challenge, the second report of the Senate Inquiry into children in institutional and out-of-home care.
“Being placed in accommodation far from family, with a parade of strangers as the only constant, is not in
the best interest of any child’s well-being and is contrary to any notion of family and community life. The
Carers Alliance calls on the NSW government to end the anguish of eight-year old Aaron Blinman and his
family by providing the shared-care arrangement for which the family advocates and which will allow the
family to remain intact. Months on end in a respite bed for a vulnerable child with severe disabilities does not
constitute a ”family-like” environment and the Minister and Director General know it.” says Carter.
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Contact Marylou Carter, Party Secretary
0425-363-421
NEWS 
