Great music gets young people out
04 May 2009
GEELONG region music-lovers made a lot of noise on March 7 to raise money for young people in nursing homes.
More than 300 people packed the Barwon Heads pub on the Bellarine Peninsula to listen to music and show their support for a planned, new Karingal facility for young people with acquired brain injury.
Nearly $3300 was raised through the event.
The money will go towards the development of a supported accommodation facility for young people with high-care needs, to be built in Amundsen Street, Belmont.
The brain-child of 25 year-old Clifton Springs resident, Sarah Agterhuis, the Get Me Out Of Here concert aimed to raise the profile of the Building Better Lives project and draw attention to the fact many young people are forced to reside in nursing homes because of lack of alternative, appropriate care.
Both Sarah and Lincoln MacKinnon, one of the musicians playing on the night, played in a high school band with a young man who sustained a severe brain injury in March, 2001. Their friend, Paul Fear, is now a Karingal Individual Support client.
Research shows young people in nursing homes generally lead impoverished lives, characterised by loneliness and boredom.
A Monash University study found 44 per cent of young people in nursing homes received a visit from a friend less than once a year.
The study also found 21 per cent rarely or never went outside and 34 per cent almost never participated in community-based activities such as shopping and visiting friends.
Currently, about 220 people under 50 live in residential aged care in Victoria.
In the Barwon South West region, 18 people under the age of 50 live in nursing homes while 94 more are aged between 50 and 65.
The Barwon Heads music event was part of the state-wide Building Better Lives campaign, which aims to resolve the issue of young people in nursing homes in Victoria. Led by the Summer Foundation, the campaign brings a range of disability organisations together under one banner and aims to raise $10 million by engaging the corporate sector and the general public.