Apartments a dire need for families

AT JUST 18, a Toowoomba man is facing the prospect of either moving into an agedcare home, or away from family and his existing support system because of his recently diagnosed progressive neurological disease.

He is one of 28 in the Garden City who face lonely futures.

“People want to live in their own place where they are cared for,” MS Queensland service coordinator Janice Wheeler, who has worked in Toowoomba for 15 years, told The Chronicle.

“Families are falling apart trying to maintain care for their loved ones.

“People are just living each day. Parents are being pushed from pillar to post thinking of what they will do, when they are no longer here.”

Building Project Dignity would give those 28 residents a chance to stay in their hometown and get suitable care.

It is hoped Toowoomba will be the second complex built in Queensland, behind Springfield which is set to open later this month.

“In some respects the project here is really just scratching the surface,” MS Queensland CEO Lincoln Hooper said.

“We’ve got to start somewhere. We’re got to start showing the way.

“(The 28) is desperate by the numbers but the stories behind the numbers of people who have given up all hope of this ever happening, and are not making plans for their life... shows you, I think, the story behind the numbers.”