Disabled care concern

Press, 10 November 1986, Page 3

Disabled care concern

PA Hamilton Young disabled persons, no matter how severe their disability, have the right to care in an environment less clinical than a public hospital, says a Waikato Hospital physician: Dr John Petrie, physician in charge of the hospital’s young disabled unit,’ said ideally those young disabled who could be cared for at home should be with their families.

Those who were severely brain-damaged and required 24-hour care should be in a one-storey unit away from the main hospital campus in an environment which their families might regard as less sterile than a big hospital. Dr Petrie’s comments came after a “Waikato Times” report about a brain-damaged woman having to be returned to hospital because her longtime friend could no longer care for her after his social welfare benefits had been stopped. Dr Petrie said people like the woman, Rongo Hetet, should be given all the help they possibly could to stay in the community. “Anybody feels better at home, whether they are disabled or fit and well,” he said. Dr Petrie said the situation would be improved

by an attendant care scheme which may be introduced in W'aikato.

The social welfare programme enabled a seriously physically disabled person to be inthe community through having a personal attendant to assist with basic personal needs such . as. bathing, toileting, dressing and wheelchair transfers.

Dr Petrie said that programme might not be suitable for the small number of severely braindamaged w’ho required 24-hour care. He said he regarded Rongo Hetet’s friend, Maurice Peka, as someone very special to be able to provide that constant care.

Instead, that small percentage of people, who required constant turning, toileting, feeding and other care, 24 hours a day, 52 weeks a year, still needed institutional care. However, that did not have to be in Waikato Hospital. Dr Petrie said they could, be looked after in private hospital beds or ideally in a unit designed for them.

The unit could be set up in Hamilton or a smaller Waikato town. Although those people required constant nursing care it was not technically difficult so the unit could be staffed by enrolled nurses or nurse aides under the guidance of a registered nurse.