Joint Govt/Silver Chain agreement to restructure personal alarm scheme

29/7/95

The State Government and Silver Chain Nursing Association have reached an agreement to restructure Silver Chain's CareLink Personal Alarm Scheme to make it more accessible to Western Australians.

The service currently provides 1739 seniors with personal, monitored alarm systems which assist them to continue living in their homes rather than moving to hostel or nursing home care.

From September 1, 1995 the service will be extended and made available to other members of the community, regardless of age, but subject to eligibility criteria.

The restructuring is necessary because the scheme, introduced three years ago, has created a number of anomalies which disadvantage needy sections of the community.

Silver Chain Chief Executive, Ross Bradshaw, said the demand for the current free scheme created a waiting list. This had been growing steadily since January 1993 and now had 187 people listed.

"We don't have the resources or the funds to offer all people a free service although many would benefit from the security of an alarm," he said.

Under the restructured scheme all existing CareLink clients who hold a Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) will be asked to contribute a nominal $2.50 a week to the service.

Existing clients who do not hold a PCC will be required to pay the market price for the service.

"But the State Government has agreed to grant $100,000 to Silver Chain towards the CareLink Scheme over two years to help the genuinely financially disadvantaged people to continue to receive the service free," Mr Bradshaw said.

"Any existing clients may apply for this assistance if they wish, although we expect that many of our clients will be able to contribute $2.50 a week," he said.

Seniors Minister Roger Nicholls said that Silver Chain was one of Perth's leading community organisations which provided an excellent service to the community.

He said that the State Government believed the restructuring would address three major issues. It would:

*solve the waiting list issue in a fair and equitable way;

*ensure those who were capable of contributing a nominal financial amount for their security would do so;      

*help ensure that truly needy people were not disadvantaged.

"There are a number of commercial providers of personal alarm systems operating throughout Western Australia.  While CareLink remains free to eligible seniors, regardless of means, it distorts the development of alternative services which would be available not only to seniors but also to others with temporary or long term need of them," Mr Nicholls said.

"It is appropriate that the State Government does not hinder the development of further services within this State."

Mr Nicholls said that the State Government had approached the Federal Government to provide financial support, Australia wide, for personal alarm services for disabled and elderly people who clearly could not afford to subscribe to a commercial service.

"The service has considerable social merit as it assists people to stay in their own homes.

"It saves the Federal Government a substantial amount of money that it would otherwise be paying for hostel or nursing home accommodation.

"In our opinion the Federal Government should be paying for this service directly through Social Security. I believe this could be achieved by either increasing pension payments to people who have qualified under a means tested system or by providing a rebate to those people.

"It would be a simple scheme to administer and each recipient could then choose which of the variety of services now provided by the private sector, would meet their individual needs."

Existing CareLink clients and those on the waiting list would be contacted by Silver Chain early next week and informed of how the changes would affect them.

For further information, a CareLink Information Line has been established on 242 3010 for metropolitan callers or 1800 677 242 for country callers.

The CareLink Information Line will operate from 12 noon to 5pm on Sunday July 30 and between 9am and 5pm from Monday July 31 until Friday August 4.

(The CareLink alarm consists of a control unit linked to the user's home telephone and a pendant worn around the user's neck.  Users can raise the alarm from anywhere in or around the home simply by pressing an alarm bar at the side of the pendant. The control unit is monitored 24 hours a day and, in an emergency, one of three people nominated by the user will be contacted.)

Media Contact: Hugh Ryan  (09)  221 5468