Yvonne Cuschieri holding plans for the Queanbeyan Respite Facility. Photo: Supplied.
There are just a few months remaining to ensure a long-awaited respite centre can actually open its doors.
That’s the warning from Paul Walshe OAM, chair of Respite Care for QBN.
He told Region the group was running out of time to find someone to operate the six-bed Yvonne Cuschieri House as the end of construction work nears.
“The plan was, always, that we would find a provider out there that does respite care … We could gift the building to them, and they would operate it.”
Queanbeyan resident Yvonne Cuschieri OAM formed the group after her son, Steven, was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
She and her husband became his carers and, following his death in 2013, she started campaigning for a youth respite centre.
While Mrs Cuschieri continued to push for a respite centre until her death in 2021, the charity she helped launch continued the campaign.
That facility, named Yvonne Cuschieri House in her honour, hopes to offer respite care to Queanbeyan residents who are aged 18-60 and are living with a terminal or chronic illness.
The board estimates it would cost $1.6 million a year to operate, an amount that Mr Walshe says is too high to fundraise.
It means they’ve spent years calling for external funding, which he believes will be needed for its sustainable operation.
“I’ve written to anyone I can think of … It’s like they stick their head in the sand and hope I go away,” Mr Walshe said.
He said his group had sought tenders from four operators, but all had fallen through.
“They notified us about mid-January, because the tender was closing at the end of January, that they wouldn’t be submitting a tender because they couldn’t financially make it work,” he said.
“Basically, that comes down to how it needs government funding.”
Mr Walshe said the board had approached state and federal MPs, but without success.
“We need a longer-term plan for funding, a sustainable funding model going forward,” he said.
“The last thing we want is to operate it for one year and then close its doors because there’s no more money.”
An artist’s impression of the proposed respite care facility in Queanbeyan. Image: Respite Care for Queanbeyan.
Mr Walshe said the board had made ongoing calls for funding “since day one” to ensure the Yvonne Cuschieri House could open — and stay open.
He pointed to Leo’s Place in Canberra, a non-clinical residential respite centre that receives support from the ACT Government.
“They’ve got a waiting list for the respite care facility, and 30 per cent of their patients come from NSW,” Mr Walshe said.
“There’s certainly a need for it, and they’ve got the luxury, you could say, in some ways, that they’re funded pretty well by the ACT Government. We’ve got no government funding.”
Mr Walshe said he had been told 30 per cent of patients at Leo’s Place were coming from NSW, which showed the need for a service in Queanbeyan.
“We have these royal commissions and we had the aged-care royal commission … It talks specifically about respite and about having respite [services for young people].”
He said the board was hoping to resolve the issue by the end of April so it could bring on an operator and prepare for the facility’s handover.
“The longer this drags out, the longer it’s going to take to get an operator in there to own and operate the facility,” he said.
“The sooner we can get around the table and work something through, the sooner we can get someone in there who can take it forward. It’s certainly a frustration.”
Mr Walshe said the final building works were expected to be finalised by mid-June.
