Roles in Disability Care Australia

In the disability sector the most vital role is the relationship between their support worker and the clients they work with. In the main the introduction of NDIS now known as Disability Care Australia, these already established relationships and relationships the will be introduced will be relatively under changed, where these  Client/worker relationship built on well grounded polices and procedures will continue unchanged.

In Queensland in preparation for the introduction of the NDIS in 2016 some clients who already receive packages through Disability services have switched to self-directed funding,  under this arrangement with the state government clients and/or their adult guardian have a greater say in how they  use their funding .

This funding is allocated under the Queensland Government's Growing Stronger Program. Where greater emphasis is placed on client choice. My life! My choice! Is  the principle that underlines this funding and much of the funding that will be distributed under Disability Care Australia. If you have not been contacted by the Department of Disabilities Services of you service provider to change to this new fund system, then for now how you use your support will remain unchanged.

My life! My choice! Gives clients and families three different models that enables them to be more empowered to make choices around their daily living needs and support goals. Eventually all people with disabilities living in Australia will be able to do this.

However this is a huge shift in thinking for everyone involve. We need to take slow steps to allow these changes to take place, understand what the mean for clients, families, carers, guardians, the adult guardian board, support workers, service providers, the dismantlement of the Department of Communities, the staff and all people working in the sector.  The changes are a few years away, but now is the to discuss what these changes mean for us as individuals and collectively.

Any change creates uncertainty, this uncertainty use in the right way can be a powerful tool. Or we can let this uncertainty be ruled by fear leading to a state of confusion. The introduction of  Growing Stronger and later Disability Care Australia is simple to give people as greater say in the life style choices.

Both systems allow this to occur in a number of ways:

1. Structurally it is predicted that many clients and families will chose not to make any changes in how the are supported and who they are support by.  For these people the greatest joy maybe to know the equipment needs will be meet.
2. Then there's a group of clients who would like a greater say in who supports them, when they are supported, how often they are supported and how they wanted to be support. Currently they may go bowling on a Saturday morning, they might decide they now like to go fishing on Saturdays or the want to attend a respite center to make new friends. This is about real people making real choices for their lives. The people chose a provider to 'host' the package on their behalf and disperse funds to produces the services the clients want from one or more service  providers.
3. It is expected that only a small number of people will chose to apply for an ABN and completely self-manage package.  This means rather than use staff from an existing service provider such as the Cerebral Palsy  League or the Endeavor Foundation, clients will advertise, interview, train and employ their own staff.  These people will be subjected to the same rules and regulations as all small business owners and bound to maintain the disability standard.

So you see while on the surface level, service delivery appearance will look the same, the governing principles and governance model will undergo significant change.  The word governance is the decision making process around what a support system will look like.  Until now this governance roll in Queensland has been undertaken by the department of Communities Disability Services, Board members of Service Providers and Case Workers, Community Linking Officers and Client Coordinators.

Only now as self-directed funding is being offered can families and clients say, I don't want 10 hours in home support, what I need is 5 hours in hours per week to assist with personal care, landry and meals preparation  and I like to use the other 5 hours to be support do a TAFE  course. In order to change the way people with disabilities are being supported some people will meed to look for new support providers. 

This is a major shift in thinking and methodology for case workers and coordinators. People who have previously been employed to design, write and implement support plans, with only assist in the writing and implementation.  The days when someone working for a service provider decides a client will spend 'x' number of hours at a shopping centre are thanking ending. Where traditionally support workers have felt the need to prompt or decide activities for clients, these types of governance decisions will be directly made by clients, a family member or appointed caregiver or guardian. 

More than ever before support workers must be able to make the shift from a more traditional role of 'a paid carer' to support worker.  A support workers role is to enable a person to achieve the goals.  The days when client are only receiving support as respite care for the caregiver(s) in their lives are ending.  Under the watch of Disability Care Australia all support will be linked to the goals the person wants to achieve.  

If that goal is to be able to make themselves a sandwich for lunch the support worker will find it hard to defend taking a client to a movie.  People with disabilities want and enjoy the same things as everybody else.  With the right to make decisions about how the will spend their time to comes responsibility. Where a client lives independently and chooses to go bowling instead of doing the shopping when supported, then lack of choices of things to eat is the consequences.

Many of us like to protect others from harm and making mistakes, NDIS or Disability Care recognizes that even people with disabilities have the right to make mistake, bad choices even where they can be harmful. Support Workers will no longer be directly the client through the daily routine.  The client will decided if the have a shower at the start or the end of the shift, they may chose to do both and they may chose even not to have a shower.  It is their life and their choice.  It is not the role of the worker to make judgments on how the person asks to be supported. 

Many workers who have worker in the sector for many years will struggle with this change in governance, for those accustom to making decisions for the people they support this will be difficult.  While some clients and families are very happy with how they are supported now, many tell us, they want to decide what type of voluntary work the like to do, to go ice staking rather than swimming. Under NDIS individualized support is set to become even more individualized. 

Workers who unable to adapt to a change in governance will struggle to please the clients. As we saw yesterday that means they may struggle to keep their employment.