The journey up the mountain as we build a fairer system to support people with disabilities, their families and those who provide care will be fought with difficulties as I set out to highlight yesterday. The concepts of Disability Care Australia, remain unclear for many.
Some people in the community are still unsure about their personal eligibility for the scheme. You can nor check your eligibility on the Disability Care Australia website by answering a few simple questions.
It is important to remember the commencement of Disability Care Australia will be different in each state, to find out information about your area you should check the website of check with a local disability service provider.
On all area of Australia have joined the scheme we will have A National Standard of Disability Care. It is important that we understand from this point forward we are all responsible to ensure these standards are meet. If we want to maintain these national standards and ensure everyone remains protected under this knew system we, clients, families, caregivers, support workers, staff at organisational level, management governance level and government departments must demand best practices in the workplace.
To be well supported we much give excellence in supporting our support workers, through protecting their rights, maintaining work, health and safety standards at all times, pay award wages and follow award pay structures. Sure we all want value for money to stretch our funding dollar, but their are times when spending our funding on staff training and ensuring the well being of our staff will be a wise investment. Just as staff are known by the reputation so are we clients. In a market driven industry, based on supply and demand to attract quality support workers you want a A+ rating as a client, family and/or employer.
The launch my seem like a long way off in Queensland, but the time to prepare for a future is now. The scheme will see clients, families and carers being empowered to make choices for themselves on how they wish to be support. The family may choose to do the personal care for there family member so they may spending more time in the community. Remember one of the main goals of Disability Care is to increase peoples involvement in the community.
People will also have a greater say in who will support them. No matter where the live they can chose which services they want to access. If a service is not providing the types of supports they want to access the are able to approach other services, use a generic or use a brokerage to employ staff directly. Disability Care will see clients accessing different services, doing different activities to what the have previously done, trying some new things, learning knew skills, and exploring new pathways of being supported. It will be an exciting time of learning and exploring together.
Change even when it is positive can be frightening, so if you frighten and feeling unsure about your future, you are not alone. A good sense of fear can be helpful and make us more cautious. When we are cautious we often check things out better and explore all the risks and that's what we need to do as we prepare for a future being funded and supported by Disability Care Australia.
Now is the time to ask lots of questions and go exploring. Talk to other people, find out how the do things. Try to do some different things to see if you or your family member likes it then you can decide if it something you want to build into your support package. If you like what you do now and just need more help to achieve you goals, that's ok too!
This is your life and Disability Care is about enabling you to make the right choices for your life. You might want to think about where you live. You might like where you live But will you want to live then in 5 . . . 10 years time? Do you always want to live where you libe now or might you want to more at some stage? It's ok not to know the answers but its good to explore and dream a little too.
Moving and where we live has been something many people with disability because of lack of funding, or opportunity or low incomes or other family commitments or the wrong type of accommodation to suit you particular needs, has not made choosing where and with whom you live possible. That's the other thing about Disability Care Australia you make discover new possibilities open up for you.
So get round and talk with your friends see what types of things their thinking of doing in the future. Ask your support provider if the think the will offer anything different when Disability Care starts. Jump on the internet and see what are services are doing. The more questions you ask, the more people you talk with and share ideas with you more ready you be when Disability Care Australian commences in your area.
If you live in Queensland and your discussing funding, self-directed funding or Disability Care Australia that you understand,(a) how you are funded on July 1 2013; (b) which level of goverment you are funded by; (c) all state and HACC funding will change once Disability Care commences in 2016 in Queensland.
At present any funding being assigned before July 2016 is not under the banner of Disability Care Australia and paid for by the agreements made by state and federal goverments to be funded by the medicare level recently. When you feel confused find a support person who knows you and your family well and ask for help. You may like to find an advocate or mentor to assist you in your journey.
They journey towards changing to Disability Care Australia is best take with people you know and who know you well. Whether your a client, a family member, a carer, a guardian a support worker, paid carer, work for an organisation, an agency manager, or in a governance position this is one journey I don't advise you take alone.
I am not an expert on Disability Care Australia, much of what I write is base on the changes I expect to occur in my home state of Queensland. It is important you understand the changes that will occur in you area and the key dates. Always refer to the Disability Care Website and talk to people in you network. I started to up links up on my tool bar to the right. If you want to recommend a link or need assistance to find something email me. Together we can make this journey.
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