History of Disability in South Australia

Cara has been serving the South Australian community for over 55 years, formerly as part of the Spastics Centre of South Australia Network and now as an independent non-profit organisation.

Cara is committed to helping people with severe and multiple disabilities and their families live full and rewarding lives. We support over 500 children and adults, operating across 34 metropolitan and regional sites in South Australia.

Our mission is to provide a range of quality community based accommodation and respite services to children and adults with severe and multiple disabilities and their families.

Services include supported accommodation in community houses, children and adult respite houses, mobile respite, Camps for Kids, in-home attendant care support services, Families for Families, vacation respite for teens and independent living skills training.

Cara’s services are designed to suit the individual needs and abilities of people with a disability. We place a strong emphasis on inclusion; assisting people to identify and develop their interest and to participate and contribute to the wider community.

History

Cara’s origins began with the establishment of the South Australia Paralysis Welfare Association in the 1950’s which provided care for children with a disability. In 1951 our current day site at 98 Woodville Road was purchased and a home was opened on the site providing a day play school and respite families. This was later called the Woodville Spastic Centre.

With proceeds from the Miss Australia Quest which was launched in 1954, the centre was expanded over the years to include a Nursing Home, Kindergarten and Primary School.

However, in the early eighties, greater emphasis on disability rights and community inclusion resulted in the decentralisation of the Woodville Spastic Centre and its services. Over a 10 year period the Woodville Spastic Centre, which was renamed the Spastic Centre of South Australia (SCOSA), moved away from institutionalised care and provided its services on a regionalised basis by supporting people with a disability to live and participate in the community.

During this time SCOSA and the Crippled Children’s Association, now Novita Children’s Services, worked together to eliminate the duplication of services and the Nursing Home was closed down at Woodville.

As a result in the early 1990’s SCOSA established two organisations, the Community Accommodation and Respite Agency (Cara) and Community Access Services (CAS). All therapy and equipment services were transferred to Novita and all accommodation and respite services were transferred to Cara.

In 1993 the SCOSA Foundation was established to fundraise for both Cara and CAS. In 2003 this Foundation was dissolved, however both Cara and CAS continued to market themselves under the name of the SCOSA.

In 2006 Cara’s Board decided to relinquish its ties with the Spastic Centre of South Australia and operate and market under its own name Cara. The following year, the new Cara brand was launched and the organisation entered a new era.

Today, Cara continues to provide quality accommodation and respite services to people with a disability and their families.

Our services

Accommodation

People with a disability have the opportunity to live independently in the community with Cara’s accommodation services.

Our long-term accommodation services are scattered through Adelaide’s suburbs, where people with disabilities can live with dignity, independence and have access to social networks. Trained staff provide various levels of support as required by the individual.

Accommodation options include:

Share homes – up to four people live together in a suburban house, with support from staff as needed.

Cluster sites – a group of units or courtyard homes where people can live with independence, knowing help is always on-call.

Co-tenancy – a great social environment where a person without a disability pays minimal rent to share a house with a person with disabilities, and provide agreed help e.g. shopping, being home certain hours. Cara is the pioneer of this type of accommodation in South Australia.

Respite

Families and individuals who care for people with disabilities appreciate the opportunity to take a regular break from the demands of full-time caring. And people with disabilities, like all of us, deserve the opportunity to make new friendships, learn new skills and experience new environments.

Cara has a range of respite opportunities to suit children and adults, these include:

Child and adult respite houses – overnight accommodation for four adults or children in a suburban house. Most often used on weekends and school holidays.

Intensive home support – for people over 13 years old who require more intensive support in their own homes.

‘Outcomes’ program – flexible support in a family’s own home. An individualised package of care hours that families can use to suit their needs.

Mobile respite – short holidays for over 16 year-olds held in various locations across South Australia.

Camps for Kids – holiday camps for children with a disability.

Families for Families – a host family provides overnight care for a child with a disability in their own home, usually for one weekend a month, or as part of the school holidays.

Vacation Respite for Teens – school holiday program for teens, caters for those families who are unable to access regular or alternative respite services during school holidays.

Cara also has a Skills Enhancement Service which consists of Skills Trainers who can assist people with a disability to learn or maintain a skill that will increase their independence and participation at home or in the community.

Directions for the future

Cara’s vision is to be a place for opportunity. Our mission is to provide a range of quality community based accommodation and respite services to children and adults with severe and multiple disabilities.

With a growing demand for our services we will seek to further engage the support of government and the community to respond to the urgent and unmet need for services for people with disabilities and their families.

In the next three years, we plan to expand our accommodation services, initiate new respite programs for weekends and school holidays, introduce day recreation respite, increase the Camps for Kids program and develop more community
and holiday based respite options for adults.

As a leader in the disability sector, Cara will continue to raise the awareness of the community and advocate for the real inclusion of people with disabilities to ensure that their communities are too, a place for opportunity.