Fight for son’s pool rights

By Alison Noonan
A CRANBOURNE mother is disgusted at the lack of disabled services at a community facility.
Tracy Slachter’s 12-year-old son Nathan suffers from cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound following a major operation earlier in the year.
He was attending the Cranbourne Indoor Pool as part of vital rehabilitation to regain full use of his legs.
However, Ms Slachter has vowed never to take her young son to the pool again after being forced to wait up to half an hour each visit to use the centre’s change room.
The widow and single mother said she could not bear the trauma of seeing her son shivering in the cold while parents changed their able-bodied children in the one disabled/family room.
“The room is constantly in use, sometimes by people who don’t really need to be using it,” she said. “There is only one toilet for disabled people and families to share, but parents are often taking their children in when they are old enough to be using the regular toilets.
“This isn’t what the room is meant for. It’s not good enough.”
Ms Slachter said she struggled as a single parent to change Nathan on her own and relied on a specially equipped room for assistance.
She said she was frustrated that pool users and staff were ignoring her son’s special needs.
“I can’t change him in the boys’ toilets because I have no one to go in with him and it is unacceptable to take him into the girls’ change room.
“He is physically disabled, not intellectually, and as a 12-year-old boy he watches the girls change.
“If I can’t use the disabled toilet I have to bring the chair hoist and wheelchair with me and it’s very difficult when you’re on your own.
“The pool put a sign up outlining the guidelines for the use of the disabled room but people don’t read the signs and they don’t care,” she said.
Ms Slachter said she was advised by pool staff that the centre had limited space available and could only offer the facilities as shared use.
She said staff suggested she consider travelling to Casey Arc in Narre Warren if she was unsatisfied with the current facilities at Cranbourne, a proposal she flatly rejected.
“I should not have to travel. I have lived in Cranbourne and paid rates here since 1987 and I am now being told I can’t use the facilities in my own area,” she said.
“They told me the new Cranbourne Pool would be built in three to four years, but a fat lot of good that is to me now.
“Nathan need this rehab now to speed his walking up.
“I’m just going to have to exercise with him at home because it is just too distressing for him and me to have to wait at the pool,” she said.
“It just seems I am constantly fighting one issue after another to get disabled services for Nathan.
“No one is fighting for my child except me.”
Casey Council Manager Arts and Leisure Robyn Bowen said council would work with Ms Slachter and the Cranbourne Indoor Pool to find a solution.
“The change room is provided as an accessible facility for families and disabled people to have an appropriate place to change.
“We are obviously aware this facility has reached its full capacity because council has applied for a state government grant for the construction of a new pool.
“But, in the meantime, we need to consider all users of the facility and look at what can be done to enhance Ms Slachter’s visits to the pool,” she said.