Atlanta Baker has painful memories of the last time she took her dad to a public park; his paranoia spiked and he scratched his arms until he bled, attracting a crowd of people and an ambulance.

Ms Baker is a full-time carer for her diabetic father William Baker, who has Korsakoff dementia, is diagnosed bipolar, suffers paranoia episodes, is on blood thinners after a triple heart bypass, and struggles to walk after a serious car accident 15 years ago.

With her father confined to his one-bedroom brick house and patio for the past 16 months, Ms Baker has been trying to find a safe way for the 71-year-old to visit  his neighbour and enjoy the rented rural property in south-east Queensland’s Mary Valley.

“I used to be able to put him in the car but because of his ankle injury I can’t do that now and I have no way of getting him off this pad of concrete or out of those four walls,” she said.

Rural challenges

Mr Baker is now too old to be eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), and his conditions are complex.

“I wash Dad, I clean, I do everything for Dad and I have done for the last few years because he’s needed that, and because of his bipolar there are just a lot of complications there, so I’d just rather handle all of that,” Ms Baker said.

She says her father’s wheelchair is useless on the steep rural terrain, and his cognitive impairments, physical injuries and mental capabilities mean it would not be safe to let him drive a mobility scooter, even if one could handle the hills.

But with around $64,000 of unspent funds sitting in his Level 4 Home Care Package account, Ms Baker believes there is an accessibility answer.

ATV alternative

Ms Baker would like some of her father’s package to be used to buy a Side-by-Side (SxS) All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) with a roof cover, a roll cage and seatbelts, that she could drive for him.

“Just to take him down for a cuppa near the dam in the afternoon or come down and sit under the fan and have a game of cards with me somewhere different, just out in the sunshine, and it just makes a world of difference, but the legislation isn’t accommodating for that,” she said.

New SxS ATVs retail online for anywhere between $7,000 to $31,000 in Australia.

“There’s a lot of needs that a lot of people need rurally that perhaps people who live in towns and cities don’t need so much but do take for granted,” Ms Baker said.

Government response

A spokesperson for the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has told the ABC that ATVs are considered vehicles, not mobility aids, and the purchase of them is a program exclusion.

But Ms Baker said her father’s Home Care Program provider (which she has asked the ABC not to name) has written to the Aged and Community Care Providers Association to ask if an ATV could be considered an allowable expense, given its “direct relation to the consumer’s care needs and the exceptional benefits to his mental health and wellbeing”.

Ms Baker explained that she and her father are renting the property from a close friend and that moving is not an option they could afford.

She noted that she was not asking authorities for additional funding, and urged them to consider broadening the policy framework to provide more flexibility for people living in rural areas.

“It is not just a quality-of-life issue for him now, it is also for me, it is just so frustrating because I’ve uploaded photos, I’ve uploaded footage and I’m like, “can someone just listen please and help?'”

Aged care advocacy

Rebecca Kok from Aged and Disability Advocacy Australia said while she could not comment directly on Mr Baker’s case because of privacy reasons, she hoped his individual circumstances would be taken into account.

“Traditionally I guess the mobility aids that are out there are intended to be used by the individual, but I think that in a situation where the person is unable to utilise that piece of equipment themselves, there should be provision made into how they can have their needs met,” she said.

Mr Baker is unable to dress, groom, shower, prepare food for himself, or walk more than a few metres with his mobility walker.

Ms Kok said mental health and wellbeing were supported when people could get out of the house.

“That is the intent of the Home Care Package program as well, it is about people having social connection, it is about them connecting with their community and staying and avoiding also entering into an aged care facility prematurely,” she said.

Ms Baker, who lives with prolapsed discs in her back, is also working to privately pay for renovations, including an upgrade to her father’s cramped bathroom, where a transfer seat is needed to reach the shower located over the bath.

“I will get to a stage very soon where I’m not going to be able to shower Dad in the bathroom, so that’s a bit worrying,” she said.