As a person with a disability I count myself blessed for being born in Australia, I find it difficult to imagine, myself being born in a country such as India, where no services exist and people labelled as ‘lame’ often are abandoned at birth because the child has no potential to support the family.
Back home in Australian I enjoy the blessings of being part of my family and the freedom to play an active role in my community. However, not every person with a disability is so fortunate. Many families live in a constant state of kaos as they struggle to meet the needs of their child who has a disability. It is usually the case the parents remain responsible for the child’s ongoing care well into their adult years. By which time their other children have established independent lives.
Even more heart breaking, are the stories I hear and read about of people who acquire a significant disability in later life. I hear stories from people who medical professionals deem beyond worthy of the same medical attention as an able bodied person, because of their ‘perceived’ limited ability to participate in the community.
Sadly the only option for some people, who acquire a profound disability during their adult years, becomes a life in a nursing home, where they are the youngest resident by twenty or thirty years.
Whether or not a person has a family who have the capacity to care and support a person with a disability should not be the sole determination of whether a person with a disability lives in the community or ‘in care’.
The sad reality in Australia at present is the types of support services available to individuals with a disability or families who care for a member of their family who have disabilities is dependent on so many variables. This area things such as where you live (different formulas apply in different states.); the type of disability (for example access to appropriate therapies for children with Cerebral Palsy are much more accessible, than children who have Autism, even when the child’s needs are greater), general community support plays a huge role in determining the quality of life some with a disability can have. If a community as a whole can advocate for a person’s needs then supports are developed.
Despite advances in human rights and disabilities standards, inequality for service provision and support carry a wide gap between one person with a disability and another. At present gaining any type of assistance is a game of chance. You fill in the paper work, jump through the various hoops and hope for something, often the tiniest percentage of what you actually need. The randomness of the successful outcome has no rhythm or rhyme to it. It’s like playing lotto sometimes your numbers come up, but often they don’t.
But thankfully after much shouting, protesting, submissions, interviewers, a royal commission things in Australia look set to change and people with a disability look like having the same access to services regardless of whether they live in Wollongong, Darwin or a cattle station in Western Australian. Sadly in my home state of Queensland the fight to join the National Disability Insurance Scheme still continues. However, the persistence and victories won by my fellow campaigners in other states helps me hold out for hope.
Meanwhile we continue to don on our red t-shirts, hold up our ‘Every Australian Counts!’ signs, and walk the streets until our voices too are heard. We will continue to write to our members of parliament, make phone calls, talk to the media, continue to share our stories, until we too have our needs covered by a National Insurance Scheme. Please visit http://everyaustraliancounts.com.au/about/ for information on the National Disability Insurance scheme and the recommendations of the productivity commission.
As we continue to echo the phase Every Australian Counts, until everybody will a disability has access to the same support and assistance as the peers living anywhere in Australia, including outback Queensland then you can join us at http://everyaustraliancounts.com.au/home/. Even better come join us on Friday 26 October for a disabilityTEA somewhere in this great south land, or even hold your own, and let people know Every Australian Counts.
This my friends is an example of what we at BAD#12 call The Power of We! The collective power a choir of voices can achieve. While it is difficult for an individual to create change when enough individuals speak or act together the real change can and does occur.
To day we bloggers around the world are uniting to spread the message that we do hold the power to change the world! I encourage you not just to read my story, the story of other bloggers around the world via visiting the http://blogactionday.org website.
No comments:
Post a Comment