A System in Crisis

Like the majority of Australians with disabilities and their families I am trapped in an endless circle I call “the funding masses”. I wonder how many others are out there struggling to make sense of the funding they’re trying to access. Let me tell you it isn't easy and the battle is constantly emotionally draining.  How does one convey to to the various departments the emotions attached to ‘jumping through the hoops' of the funding game.

Just to prove your eligible takes months and then the questions being eligible for what. Over the years I have discovered ‘eligibility’ can mean as little as an acknowledgement that you need assistance. For years the department of Disabilities Services Queensland acknowledge I am a significant risk in my own home if intervention via inhouse support does not occur, thus perhaps appropriately I was given a ‘priority one rating’.

What I soon learnt in a system that is critically under funding that even a ‘priority one rating' meant little and 10 years later, excuse me if I don’t hold my breath, I find myself back in the position I started only my support needs are three times as high from when I first applied.  So I wait again for a bucket of money that may or may not eventually arrive and I toughen up to survive like so many other Australians living with disabilities around Australia.

One way we survive is by accessing a pool of funding known as HACC or Home and Community Care for elderly people and younger people living with a disability in the community.  That is not aged or other residential care.

There is a lot of talk about supporting people in the community to enable them to live in their own homes and to choose their individual lifestyles, but the current funding systems (did you read that systems, we are not navigating one funding system but several depending on which state or territory you live in.) very much fails on there delivery.

My personal experience of HACC is frustrating; information is difficult to obtain; most of the funding I access, happened by accident – word of month and information gained by talking to people on the street.

It is only recently, because I was forced to again play the funding game that I stumbled on a guide to HACC service.  To me it would make more sense if services gave you the you the handbook when you many an initial enquiry. So one doesn’t finding themselves ten years down the track using an inappropriate service and left feeling trapped.

Currently I find myself entrapped by a bungled of red tape, under HACC there are no clear guidelines for service users, if seems open to interruption and the desecration of each provider and dependent on their individual service agreement with Home and Community Care. So ask three different people working within the sector and you literally get three different answers.

Currently under HACC people living independently in the community are lumped together,  despite there varying levels of needs.  HACC does not take into account the level of incompacity.  People of all ages are lumped together and in the struggle to provide basic care services do the best to offer everyone the basics. Knowing at best they often are putting a bandaid on an open wound that requires stitches.

To be able to offer quality care to individuals peoples need to have a sense that the are not fighting to access money design to meet the needs of people who are aging and service the opportunity to offer quality care to either people with a disability or the aged not offering gap services to both.  While their needs may look the same on the surface,  who those needs are meet require totally different operational procedures.

Currently, I access a service that predominately has clients over 65. As a young person active in mainstream activities my local community, no set service times makes it difficult to plan your day around.  

Family and friends wonder at the despair people with disabilities and their families face. There is no security under the current funding models.  Worst still it feels some funding systems pitch service and service and client against client.  People with disabilities are crying out for a system that at least puts everyone on a level playing field.

A system where every person with a disability regardless of where they live in Australia has at least the same potential to access the same funding pool.  A single funding body for all Australians would at least provide a level found ground. Whether improvements can be made, I remain sceptical. However, the situation can’t get much worst than the one we are currently faced with.