Errh! The media! Firstly to be fair the media and especially social media has been a real alley in the NDIS now known as Disability Care Australia which was launch, in five states across Australia under trial status.
Monday provided due celebrations for thousands of Australians who worked and campaigned for many years for one single funding system to provide the support, therapy, and equipment needs for Australians living with Disability.
However Monday was only the beginning . . . in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the North Territory and only a few thousand people will be given the opportunity to transition from the current funding arrangements to a federal funded support package under the direction of Disability Care Australia in the first 12 months.
Yes, we have every reason to celebrate that between now and July 2019 around 420 000 Australians living with Disability and their families will be empowered to have a greater choice about how the want there support needs to be meet, who the would like to meet those needs and the times the wish to be supported to have a shower.
While Disability Care Australia gives hope to hundreds of thousands of Australians either currently affected by impairments or who will acquire a disability before the age of 65, its introduction means different things to different Australians. For those who have never had support and struggled to purchase equipment an access specialized therapy, the fairness of the system brings renewed hope. The same eligibility applies for all Australian, well not quite WA is still play hard ball and I can't imagine the hard ache of those who live in WA with disability.
As I talk to people with disability. their families, parents of adult children, support workers and carers and those who simply support a true fair system of funding for everyone affected by disability, I am gob smacked at some of beliefs that are held. But I am angered that non service users particular support workers think things have change. That with the wave of a woad, years of miss management by state government can be undone!
The monument of the commencement of Disability Care Australian has sadly left many uniformed and sadly incorrect information seems to spread faster than the information people need to know. My suggestion is for all the up date inform on launch dates, eligibility and employment opportunity you go directly to the Disability Care Australia Website.
Hence my feeling a little bit aggro with the media. Psychological studies show the people on retain 10% of the information we receive. So by human nature we will retain the information the competes most for our attention. So this week its been Disability Care Commence on July 1. As I shared early in the week for some Queenslanders this has been confusion been added to be changes in funding at state level.
Disabilities Services Queensland funding has been at a dysfunctional level for a number of years, due to its faulty foundations and to date on band aide solutions have been found. Currently Queenslanders living with disbility and their families are funded by a number of different types of packages. For example Individual packages, post school packages, family packages, block funding and now self-directed funding under the growing stronger policy.
Its a very confusing and frustrating time for everyone in the sector: employees, clients, families, carers and and administrators. Basically for the next 3 years were tread water and try to hold on for the hope for the future that Disability Care Australia holds.
The introduction of Self - Directed funding through the Growing Stronger Policies - is a recognition be the Queensland government that people living with disability want a greater say in the way they are supported.
Essentially the commencement and eventually everyone being supported by Disability Care Australia aims to bring giver greater choice and flexibility to those living with disability. We will see an end to administrators deciding what is appropriate support and a move towards support being given to achieve the goals of people living with disability.
For the majority this will see a major change in the way people access there support, but for those who a happy with how things are working for their family, nothing needs to change. Under Disability Care Australia as long as your services continues to maintain Disability Service Standards they will continue to operate. Changes to the way you are support will only occur if you want them to change.
This shift in the way people are funded and support is perhaps the larges reform we have seen in Australia since the introduction of medicare and the regulation of health services and deliver. Such a monuments change in service delivery can not occur over night. The are many thoughts and ideas out their regarding what families and clients want to achieve. We need to get this right, to change everyone at once is dangerous and irresponsible.
With a change in service delivery, we need new ways of providing safety measures for clients, families and support workers. These must be careful thought through. We may need new laws to protect people unable to protect themselves. We need specialize advocates, OT's and physios to be trained in the areas people tell us they want to access.
Some of the people we support experience major communication difficulties to ensure these people are being enable to achieve there goals and living a life style of their choice will take months. Remember we want to undertake this very individual approach for 420 000 Australians and many will receive support for the first time.
We are giving people the right to make informed choices about their care, where the live and the activities they chose to engange in for the first time many of these people are in their 40's and 50's the right to be empowered to make choices for their lives are foreign and changes need to occur slowly to ensure cohesion and exploitation do not occur.
We can not predict what people with chose, we do not know fully what all the risk this new system will bring. Remember giving people the power to make real choices about there live means, they for the first time will feel the consequences, so safe grands need to be build into the Disability Care Australia system. We do not want to do that without careful monitoring, case studies and time to make adjustments.
To ensure this is a first class method of delivering support to those who need it we need every part of the next 6 years. So please the best place to correct you have the correct information is Disability Care Australia Website.
By all means share in the celebrates of this historical time in our Australian history, but at the same time don't get caught in the confusion and media hype. Be checking with the links I've added to my tool bar and join their relevant twitter and facebook pages.
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