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Liz McClean
Chief Executive Officer
Over seventy-five years ago, Allowah opened as a hospice for babies with disabilities and accommodation for children who could not live at home. The hospice accepted children from birth to the age of two.
Then a little while later, when medical research and skills had increased the life expectancy of children with complex disabilities, Allowah cared for children up to the age of seven and became a hospital. Over time, the age was increased to 12 and then again to 18.
In 2016, the National Disability Insurance Scheme [NDIS] was launched in New South Wales and opened up new ways of supporting children and young people with disabilities. Allowah adapted to meet this new opportunity, and since this time, we have been operating as both a paediatric rehabilitation hospital and a registered NDIS disability support provider. Last year, Allowah was licensed as a hospital to care for a small number of young people up to the age of 30…
The past seven decades have seen many changes for Allowah and for the children and young people with complex medical needs and disabilities we care for. Allowah has always strived to provide the best care possible, using whatever resources are available. The past few years, and indeed many years over the lifetime of Allowah, have been a struggle financially.
The same place, the same kids, but a different way of doing things...
We are making some changes at Allowah over the next few months that we are confident is a step in the right direction. It is what we’re calling ‘the next chapter’ in Allowah’s long history of caring for children and young people. We have found that we are now at a point where Allowah needs to adapt and make the most of the resources available to continue to provide care for the small, but very important cohort of children and young people with very complex needs.
Allowah will still be Allowah as you know it – a place that provides a high level of clinical care for children and young people who live with complex disabilities and medical needs. The difference is that we will be doing this solely as an NDIS provider and not as a hospital. We will be caring for the same kids in the same place, just in a different structure with more streamlined funding. This will open up more opportunities for us to fill the gaps and provide the service that isn’t being provided anywhere else.
We will continue to provide respite, School Holiday Programs and other great services for kids under the age of 18. We will also continue to provide Specialised Substitute Residential Care [SSRC] for children who for some reason cannot live with their parents full time. For children, we will also continue to work with the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network in a variety of ways including ‘step down to home’, rehabilitation and therapy services. These services will be provided in the Western half of the facility.
If you’ve known about Allowah for a long time, you would know that it has always been our dream to provide a long term, permanent solution for the children in our care once they become young adults. We can now do that as part of this new chapter and we are so happy to be able to walk beside these kids as they reach adulthood. We will also introduce residential care and support for young people over the age of 18, together with other great services for them. We have started to be able to provide Supported Independent Living [SIL] for these kids and we will expand what we do in this area. We will expand our Day Program for young people over the age of 16 post-school. Allowah ‘Home & Living’ for these young adults will be established in the Eastern half of the facility.
The changes we’re making will address some of the financial strains, but at the end of the day we will still the support of our community to keep providing a service that goes above and beyond. Without the level of care that we offer, these kids are at risk of becoming very ill and they just don’t thrive. As a result, we need to provide a high level of nursing care, which is not fully funded under the NDIS.
Over the coming weeks, we will continue to refine our plans in consultation with staff. We trust that these changes will allow Allowah to continue to meet the needs of children and young people with complex disabilities and medical needs, which has been our aim for more than seventy five years and will continue to be our aim into the future.
– Liz McClean
Chief Executive Officer
