Choices creating possibilities!

Young man with Autism Graduates 

with his Masters!

It's a statement I hear often, It is not our disabilities that limit us, rather attitude and the attitudes of those around us. The change that has urushered in a new system of Disability Care in Australia, is on of the biggest shift in thinking Australia has even gone.  It requires a shift in thinking . . . and shift in attitude.

On July in 5 trail sites around Australia the doors to Disability Care Australia will open for the first time.  For the first time people with disabilities  the families and adult graudin will be given choices about the way the want the support needs to be meet. While Disability Care Australia will see in real injection of funding to meet the unmet needs of 10, 000's  of people living with primate serve disability, it also aims to 'revoluationalised  the way we have historically thought of disability and how we have 'cared' for these people.

Often during these debates I have heard these people refer to as 'the most vulnerable members of our community. Our ingrain first reaction and need to protect these individuals with disabilities is very strong. I living with a disability know first hand their are many people in our society ready to take advantaged of those who are traditionally viewed as having a weakness.  Sadly there is an element in our society that will exploit anyone with any type or weakness and we do not have to have a disability to fall pray to these people.  Our expressions tell powerfully stories of how we view people with disabilities and labeling them as being the most vulnerable people in the community, makes a powerful statement for protection.

However these statements and therefore judgments are made on traditional and historical views of people with disabilities. Historically people with disability and their families were isolated from their community. They were not given opportunities to be educated or seek employment.  No one challenge that their was more that one way people could play tennis and ruby.  People who need to mobilize in wheelchairs and artiphical limbs now compete on an international playing field.  My friends playing powerchair rub is a new normal even for me!

So as we march towards a new era in Disability Care we need as a society openly acknowledge that we need to work together to extend the bounds of "possibilities".  People with intellectual and sensory disabilities are now guarduating from high school and going on to territory education.  People of equal education levels should not been label 'vulnerable' on the bases of diagnoses along. 

Thus the first change we will see under Disability Care Australia is a shift in the way people with disabilities and their families are assessed.  Not longer will we ask what a person can't do, we will ask what the person who like to do or about the 'dreams' parents have for their children.  Even our fundamental assessment tools have contributed to the undervaluing of people with disabilities.  So in order to make these major changes and see a true enrichment in the lives of people with disabilities, their families and those who care for them we need to choose to ask smarter questions.  It a child with Cerebral Palsy has intensive physio is it possible the may be able to walk?  Not can your child walk?  

Hopefully as we shift the way we make our assessments and the way we define what is possible. Our natural insticts to protect to people with disabilities will decline and we will be willing to lossing the  puppet stings enough to give people real choice and real direction over their lives.

As my regular readers know to give people choices means we need to accept that some people with disabilities and some family members will make poor choices resulting in people being harmed in same way people chose to smoke.  To give people real choices means the person making the choice is responsible for the results good or bad.

One I the things that will leader to greater acceptance of choice is to begin now to ask ourselves, is it possible that my son or daughter could live independently in the community if they were given the right support.  It is only after we ask 'what is possible' when can then ask how do we make this possible, what are the right type of supports for 'my child'.  What does my child need help with to get out of bed ans to arrive at TAFE/work or the day centre on time?

To get the right answers, we need to learn how to ask the right questions.  To do this me need time to allow ourselves to explore possibilities that have never been there before. Need possibilities because of better supports, advances in medicine and technology, shifting in attitudes and more access to education and early intervention programs.

The first step we can take in this journey together is today.  Today we can start to change the question we are asking ourselves and service providers.  Today we can begin to ask what it possible given the opportunity to make different choice.  What could our future look like.  So when we reach our turn to switch to Disability Care Australia or be assess we already know the possibilities we want to make real!  Are you ready . . .  ?