Shortage of respite care huge burden on families

I WRITE in support of Susan Millar’s considered and accurate article on the lack of dementia respite care in Dunedin (‘‘Dementia care, support falling short’’ ODT, 12.9.17) . Our family experienced the same situation two years ago when our mother, exhausted from caring for our father who has dementia, was unable to find any agedcare facility in Dunedin which would admit him for a week or two to relieve her and allow her rest. As Susan says, the family must, by default, carry this responsibility.

As adult children we designed a roster to stay with our father and had to send Mum off on holiday for a rest. I do not blame the agedcare sector, but rather the rigid and unrealistic funding arrangements of the DHBs, which have made respite dementia care nonviable for the providers. The notion of ageinginplace is wonderful when it works but when services are not available, the provision of support falls on to families. In our case this worked out as we are a large family, but this is not practical nor sustainable for all, let alone the primary carer who must carry on.

The Ministry of Health’s Healthy Ageing Strategy emphasises personal responsibility for keeping well and staying well as people age. While a laudable (and for many an achievable) goal, not every older person is going to meet the ministry’s ‘‘target’’ of ageing well. An oldfashioned concept perhaps, but the fact remains that many older people will need help as they age — help that the current health system struggles to provide.

Lorraine Ritchie

Mornington

COULD you be a fulltime carer for someone with dementia for nine years? It is hard to imagine and harder still when you find that respite care is not available when and where you need it.

Susan Millar’s calm and dignified opinion piece is both a cry for help and a wakeup call for us all. To be funded for respite care, which would be crucial for someone in Susan’s position, but be unable to get that help in Dunedin beggars belief. We should all sit up and take notice of what

Susan has so bravely shared with us. We are an ageing population and the numbers of those with dementia will grow accordingly.

The Government’s aims to support those with dementia and their carers are but hollow words if the funding and facilities are not there to back them up. The effect of those hollow words on people will be devastating. Thank you Susan Miller for your courage in speaking up. You said ‘‘I wonder what sort of country have we become?’’ A very good question indeed.

Ann Rutherford

Alexandra

City birdlife

HOW fantastic it has been recently to hear reports of morepork calling within the urban areas of the city. The noticeable increase in birdlife over the last 10 years throughout the city can be attributed in part to the hard work of the parks and recreation team and the former contractors employed by the Dunedin City Council. Between 2001 and 2013, 12,037 pest animals, mostly possums, rabbits, goats and mustelids, were removed from DCC reserves. Unknown in this number is the number of rats and mice removed due to extensive network of bait stations located in most bush reserves including the Town Belt. With the amount of bait eaten, this number would be in the tens of thousands.

It is clear this animal control work has had a marked effect on the regeneration of the city’s bush reserves. Take a look and listen for yourselves. It is with regret that I hear the DCC no longer has an animal control contract in place and no programmed animal control has taken place over this winter. Will we continue to see this increase in birdlife? I am fortunate to live in an area of town that has a dawn and dusk chorus followed by numerous morepork calling across the valley. How good is that.!

Neville Miller

(Former DCC senior parks officer)

Dunedin