Desperate for reprieve but failed by the system

CORAL Rizzalli is tired. The 72-year-old has spent her entire life caring for sick and disabled family members and is desperate for some reprieve, but the system is failing her family.

Ms Rizzalli is the full-time carer for her sister, 67-year-old Dawn Steine who has spina bifida, osteoporosis and other heath complications and has been on a waiting list since April last year for full in-home care.

Ms Steine lives in a granny flat on Ms Rizzalli’s property where she moved after Cyclone Yasi destroyed the family home.

She has very limited mobility and relies on her older sister to care for her. Ms Rizzalli and her husband Guido, 78, want to continue caring for her and do not want her in an aged-care home but they need outside help to ease their burden.

Ms Rizzalli has just finished two years of treatment for breast cancer and recently had a pacemaker fitted.

While her sister was approved for a support package of 20 hours a fortnight in April last year, she only gets an hour because aged-care places are rationed.

“All the service providers that I’ve approached have said they don’t have any money. The end result (is) that Dawn gets one hour per fortnight of home help,” Ms Rizzalli said.

She said they were willing to compromise and accept two hours a week of care, but even that was not available.

“Look, at the moment I think we can manage if she got two hours a week, not a fortnight, two hours a week to help,’;’ she said.

“She can’t clean anymore, she can’t lift her arms above her waist and her back has deteriorated to the point where she has great difficulty even getting a teacup to her lips and we don’t want to take independence away from her . . . but at the same time I’ve just been through 2 1/2 years of cancer treatment and I’ve just had a pace-maker fitted.

“I’m older than Dawn and my husband is 78 and at the moment he is very sick with a kidney infection. So we’re just finding it extremely difficult to provide the help that she needs. So if we could get that two hours.

“Well, I’m getting to the stage where it’s absolutely exhausting to have to look after two people.”

Source: The Australian, Patricia Karvelas