MYSTERY DONATION BRINGS MS HELP CLOSER
MS Queensland says residents on the ledge
TERRAN Hassal, 44, remains fiercely independent, despite multiple sclerosis taking his ability to paint.
The long-term resident of MS Queensland’s Granston Lodge in Dutton Park has made himself a new home, through necessity not choice, after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 10 years ago.
MS Queensland is working to build a high-needs home in Toowoomba to solve what it calls the silent housing crisis.
A generous $750,000 donation has them almost there, with just $250,000 needed to make it happen.
‘‘ THEY’RE GIVEN BACK THEIR DIGNITY, RESPECT AND INDEPENDENCE TO BE ABLE TO LIVE AN EXCEPTIONAL LIFE.
LINCOLN HOOPER, MS QLD CEO
TOOWOOMBA is in the midst of a silent housing crisis as residents living with progressive neurological diseases struggle to find age-appropriate accommodation.
MS Queensland CEO Lincoln Hooper described the situation in the Garden City as dire, and among the worst he’s seen in the state.
Residents living with diseases such as MS, he said, were at breaking point.
He hopes $250,000 can change that, and allow MS Queensland to move forward with its plans to build a 10-12 room high-needs care apartments in Toowoomba under Project Dignity.
“We know there is this desperate need for high-need housing when a situation like MS takes hold and a person can no longer live in their own home,” Mr Hooper he said.
“When we started to talk to them about the possibility of creating this housing, they have become so desperate in the lack of it and the unfulfilled promises over many years they are so desperate there are more planning to end their life than prepare for the rest of it in something like this.
“They are so desperate they are moved into aged care or sadly take their own life.”
The first Project Dignity complex will open in Springfield in about 25 days, and with a mystery donor kicking in $750,000 of the required $1 million seed funding, the Toowoomba project is close to getting off the ground.
It will bring age appropriate high-needs care to the city, about 20 jobs during operation, relieve families of their carer responsibilities and, in some cases, allow them to return to the workforce.
“A younger person living in aged care is not appropriate for them, not because of the care but just because of their age,” Mr Hooper said.
“They’re given back their dignity, respect and independence to be able to live an exceptional life.
“Through the drift of a disease, people have changed their identity.
“They were a partner and become carers and the relationship has changed so they are liberated back to being the partner again instead of the carer.”