By YASEMIN TALAT
A national awareness campaign is turning the key on young care issues in Australia and unlocking a more positive future for young Australians.
There are 7500 young Australians who currently live in aged care facilities because there is nowhere for them to go.
And of those 1820 live in Victoria.
Derrimut resident Cindy Turkovic is mother and primary care taker of her 19-year-old son Morgan who has Cerebral Palsy.
Ms Turkovic said she constantly worried that if something were to ever happen to her, Morgan would have no choice but to live in aged care.
“It’s about the future, it’s a daily worry about if something happened to you where will your young adult go?” Ms Turkovic said.
“That’s the biggest worry.”
Morgan, who celebrated his 19th birthday recently with family and friends, is a sports fanatic who is very social and loves spending time with people.
He especially loves AFL and follows the local football team where he is known as the club’s “number one supporter”.
“He likes anything social, anything where he can have a yak to someone,” Ms Turkovic said.
Ms Turkovic said aged care was not the place for her young son.
“Young adults need to be with other young adults,” she said.
Youngcare’s national awareness campaign is calling on everyone to help get young people with 24/7 care needs out of aged care.
Youngcare Chairman Nic De Luca said the issues were unique because a solution was within reach.
“Aged care is no place for a young person but that’s were 75000 young Aussies woke up this morning because there is nowhere else to go,” he said.
The Turkovic family received Youngcare’s At Home Care Grant earlier this year as an additional avenue to support the care of Morgan.
The grant helped the family access respite which allowed Ms Turkovic to keep her job.
For more information visit www.youngcare.com.au.
