A shock heart attack for a 33-year-old migrant nurse has steered her into a different path from the one she first envisaged.

Busi Faulkner arrived from Zimbabwe as a registered nurse on a skilled migrant visa and suffered a heart attack. She pulled through but faced a new reality – rejected from jobs and unable to fend for herself as she once could.

She found the experience challenging, felt unsupported, and, on quite a few occasions, like an outcast.

After continued bad experiences with her own home carers, she became determined to start a home care business for society’s outcasts.

This is what led her to establish QLD-based Home Care Nurses Australia (HCNA), made up of primarily ‘high-risk’ disability clients who are often turned away from medical and care providers due to their difficult and, at times, aggressive nature.

She is based in Brookwater, where many clients live.

“People with high-risk disabilities are misunderstood and often left in the ‘too hard’ basket in Australian society,” Ms Faulkner said.

“This is a sad reality affecting thousands of Australians and in many cases is preventing people from accessing the care that they need.”

“People with high-risk disability are humans too. There is a real need for a societal mindset shift to break the stigma around that.”

Ms Faulkner is calling for more education programs for dealing with people with high-risk needs to ensure greater understanding and acceptance.

“It is truly heartbreaking to see how these people are neglected in society.”

“I feel like I survived for the purpose of bringing awareness to that,” she said.