New HACC Centre for Cooma region
Friday, 2 May 2008
Kelly & Whan work together to deliver $1.57 million HACC Centre for Cooma region
The site for a new purpose-built $1.57 million day centre for the frail and aged, locals living with dementia or disability, their families and carers in the wider-Cooma region was announced today by Federal Member for Eden-Monaro, Mike Kelly and State Member for Monaro, Steve Whan.
Perspective view of entry. $1.57 million HACC Centre for Cooma region.
The two Labor MPs have been working together closely to address the growing needs of the region’s HACC (Home and Community Care) clientele and the demands placed on existing services scattered throughout the community.
Mike Kelly said the new Werri-Nina Centre, to be located at 227 Sharp Street Cooma, would provide much-needed services and make life significantly easier for those in the community with high needs, as well as their families and their carers.
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“Cooma-Monaro Shire Council currently provides great services to locals who fall under the HACC clientele umbrella, though many of their facilities are scattered and in need of upgrade or replacement,” Mike Kelly said.
“That’s why Steve Whan and I have worked together to deliver $1.57 million in funds to council, so that they can purchase land and construct a purpose-designed and built HACC day care centre.
Perspective view from Sharp Street, south west.
“The new Werri-Nina Centre involves the co-location of a number of HACC-related services, and seeks to provide an improved, streamlined service that will be more effective with existing resources, Mike Kelly said.
Steve Whan said the Werri-Nina Centre would deliver a good range of services to the community.
“Werri-Nina is an Aboriginal name meaning ‘A good place – a place for everyone’,” Steve Whan explained. “It will cater for a wide range of community needs with a strong list of services provided under the one roof.
“Currently, the existing Cooma Community Contact Centre has a client base with a variety of needs.
Perspective view, communal area.
“Approximately 37 per cent of current clients live with dementia and memory loss, 56 per cent are classified ‘frail aged’ (including limited mobility and/or visual impairment), five per cent with a disability (quite often younger people), and five per cent are family carers or support workers.
“Approximately 30 local families have a family member with dementia who currently benefits from the services offered at the existing centre. That number is expected to triple by 2050, so it is imperative that we start addressing this growing need today,” Steve Whan said.
While the new Werri-Nina Centre will have a dementia-focus, it will also accommodate facilities for local services such as Meals on Wheels, the Contact Centre, Home Living Support and Home Care.
Mike Kelly said the co-location of existing services would also provide a much wider focus in care delivery, as these services often deal with other local aged-care or disability services on an ongoing basis.
Perspective view from the south east.
“Other local services that would be working with, visiting and utilising the new Werri-Nina Centre include Workability (disabled employment services), Cooma Challenge Limited (disabled services), Veteran Community Support Services, Commonwealth Carer Respite Centre, Commonwealth Carelink Centre, local respite services, Community Health, Aged Care Assessment Team, Yallambee Hostel, Sir William Hudson Nursing Home, Snowy River HACC Services, Bombala HACC Services and the local HACC Forum.
“And we cannot overlook the services Werri-Nina will offer to family carers and support workers – quite often the people who could use the most support. The centre will be a place where they can access much-needed respite, referrals, receive advice and information, and even access support for themselves.
“Our carers and support workers have a very demanding role to play, and they have certainly not been overlooked in this great new facility,” Mike Kelly said.
The Werri-Nina Centre will be jointly funded by the Federal and NSW governments, and also includes generous contributions from local community groups.
Steve Whan said: “Cooma Meals on Wheels and the Friends of Contact are contributing $60,000. Those funds will be used to contribute toward items such as white goods and refrigeration storage facilities for meals that are supplied to meals on wheels clients.
“Our thanks goes out to these two great local community groups that have made such a strong contribution to the new Werri-Nina Centre.
“We must also acknowledge the vital role of the Cooma-Monaro Shire Council. Council funded the resources to get the initial expression of interest together. This was a significant job involving identifying the appropriate land, developing a design that met dementia-specific guidelines and also writing up the case.
“Of course council will have the key long-term responsibilities for management of this facility, utilising Federal and State funds.
“Like the State and Federal governments, Cooma-Monaro Shire Council also has a strong desire to tackle the growing needs of our HACC clientele in the region,” Steve Whan said.
This capital funding program is a joint Commonwealth/State initiative.
In NSW the joint contribution is close to $510 million; of this just over $305 million was contributed by the Australian Government and close to $205 million was contributed by the NSW Government.
In 2006-07, around 801,000 people received HACC services across Australia, around 210,000 of these in NSW.
Mike Kelly and Steve Whan said this funding was a great example of how they planned to work together to deliver real results for our local communities.
