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Welcome to the Summer Foundation quarterly update – Winter 2018

SUMMER FOUNDATION UPDATE – WINTER 2018

Welcome to our 2018 mid-year update. It comes with the latest news from the Summer Foundation and is delivered to you by our new CEO.

In April the Summer Foundation Board announced that I would take on the role of Summer Foundation CEO. I’m incredibly excited for the challenge ahead in continuing Summer Foundation’s work to reduce the number of young people being forced into aged care because there is no where else for them.

Di Winkler, the founder and previous CEO of the Summer Foundation remains very actively involved and you can read about her new focus on research and innovation in this update.

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Luke Bo’sher is the new CEO of the Summer Foundation.

Announcing Luke’s move to the role, Summer Foundation founder and former CEO Di Winkler said the appointment had been carefully planned.

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Sam Petersen is very worried about how the NDIA’s decisions on SDA might affect her and where she hopes to live.

“The uncertainty over what is essential for me makes me feel like my life has had the pause button put on,” she said.

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Evidence shows that there are very positive outcomes for people with disability who want to live alone and have the opportunity to do so. Living alone is not for everyone, but Summer Foundation believes that people with disability should have that same right to live alone as any person without disability.

The Summer Foundation and 20 other organisations issued a joint statement in response to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)’s SDA Provider and Investor Brief published on 24 April.

The Brief indicated only a “very small number … of a very small percentage” of NDIS participants would be funded to live alone in SDA”.

This is a big concern to people with disability, housing providers and those funding the construction of new disability accommodation. We know that when governments spend more upfront to support people to live independently, the long-term support costs will be lower.

The NDIS is an opportunity to invest more in high quality housing and capacity building upfront. This means more innovative housing models can develop, providing alternatives to group homes for many young people in aged care who may not want to live in a shared housing environment.

The Joint Statement from Summer Foundation and 20 other organisations called for immediate reassurance and said that “certainty is needed on how the SDA market is expected to grow and operate”.

The Australian Government has announced a review of the SDA framework. This is an opportunity to outline what is working well and what needs to improve. You can read the Summer Foundation’s statement on the SDA framework review here

The Summer Foundation is pleased to announce the Allen Martin Research Scholarship 2018, sponsored by The Rotary Club of Kew and Robinson Gill Lawyers.

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The majority of younger people admitted to nursing homes come from a hospital setting. Building knowledge and understanding of health and aged care professionals is critical to helping solve the issue.

In the past three months, the Summer Foundation has delivered 40 training sessions – 23 to hospital staff, 12 to Residential Aged Care (RAC) workers and five to Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACAT).

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