FEBRUARY 24, 2015 \ BRIMBANK.STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + THE WEST’S BEST PROPERTY GUIDE
Clean Up day is in the bag
(Kristian Scott)
Brimbank locals are being urged to don their finest rubber gloves and get ready to tackle some home-grown dirt on Clean Up Australia Day next month. Sunshine naturopath Jodie Williams (pictured) has set up a site at the Kororoit Creek footbridge, near Derby and Anderson roads, and is hoping others will join her for a litter patrol on March 1. “There’s totally a need for it around there. We should all be proud of where we live and keeping it clean is part of that,” says Mrs Williams. “We did an informal clean-up of the same area late last year, which started after a few of us said, when we walk around there we always end up picking up rubbish. It got us wondering, are there other closet rubbish collectors out there?” Mrs Williams says with a laugh. There are 25 sites registered around Brimbank so far, and the clean-up begins at 9.30am. Last year, about 572,400 volunteers cleaned up 15,708 tonnes of rubbish at more than 7000 sites across Australia. Register your participation or suggest a site at www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/ sunshine-facebook-group. Priscilla Moca
Dementia cuts under fire
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funding model. “An advisory service, costing $54 million over four years, as a replacement for more than $100 million per annum of funded services, goes nowhere near meeting the dementia crisis in residential aged care,” Mr Mildenhall said. “We and other providers need to provide specialist programs and other services that are shown to be highly effective.” Opposition leader Bill Shorten shared Doutta Galla’s concerns. “SBRTs might well be a good first step, but this funding is capped, which means many older people suffering from severe behavioural and psychological symptoms of
dementia are going to miss out on care they need,” he said. Senator Mitch Fifield, who announced the new model, said the money promised was in line with the former Labor government’s severe behaviour supplement. He said Labor had blown its budget for the severe behaviour supplement 11-fold while in government, and that was unsustainable. “Outside of the SBRTs, the government provides more than $130 million for programs to support and assist people with dementia and their carers, as well as a $200 million boost to dementia research.”
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A leading aged-care provider in the west has slammed the federal government for slashing dementia-care funding in favour of a “token” advisory service. Doutta Galla Aged Services – which cares for more than 500 people across Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Moonee Valley, Melbourne and Greater Shepparton – lost $800,000 in dementia-care funding this financial year after the government scrapped a $100 million annual package to aged-care providers looking after
dementia sufferers. In its place, the government announced $54.5 million over four years to establish Severe Behaviour Response Teams (SBRTs), which will be a mobile workforce of clinical experts providing support to aged-care facilities caring for people with dementia. Doutta Galla cares for 55 residents with severe behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia across aged-care homes in St Albans, Sunshine, Footscray and Yarraville. Doutta Galla chairman Bruce Mildenhall branded the move a token effort and called on the government to reinstate the former
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By Charlene Macaulay