In terms of the commencement of
Disability Care Australia little has been discussed in terms of the most significant
relationships in the care of people living with disability and their
families. This is the pay role of a
support person. Under Disability Care
Australia a support person may be a teachers aid, a therapist, a paid attendant
carer, a nurse, paid carer or support worker.
What role and how a person is ‘employed’
after each state switches to the new system should look very differently from worker to worker
and be different for each individual client depending on their support goals.
The Game is About to Change
For the distance the day to day
operation of Disability Care Australia may not look any different except for an
expansion of the number of people who are able to be supported. Once fully implemented in Queensland, about
double the number of people who currently receive support care will be
supported by Disability Care Australia.
A lot of confusion still exist in
the Community about who will be eligible for support post 2016 in Queensland.
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A young person with a significant disability who
requires assistance with daily living and their direct caregiver and family
where appropriate. (Under the lesigation a
young person is someone under the age of 65 as at 1st July 2016).
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People with disabilities who have disabilities
or acquire a disability will continue to have their needs provided for by
insurance, private and public health systems, rehabilitation services, age care
services – such RSL Care and Blue Care which are currently predominately
services which support older Australians and Veterans Affairs.
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Disability Care Australia will not cancel out or override existing government
departments and services, such as the public health system, the age care
system, mental health services, Government Housing and Accommodation
services. The departments will continue
to operate independently of Disability Care Australia and can be access by
persons with or without disability. For
an example regardless of a person age and ‘ability’ status the same application
progress for government assistance for housing will remain post 1st
July 2016 in Queensland.
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What Disability Care Australia aims to do is
close a gap in service provision for younger Australians living with
disability.
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Currently there are around 6500 people with
disability living under the age of 60 permately in nursing homes around
Australia. Thus a fully operational Disability Care Australia will free up
around 6000 nursing places, that is a increase significant in the number of older
Australians who experience disability will be able to access age care because
younger persons with disability will not longer desire that type of care.
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Similarly for many years I access Home Care
Services because I was unable to have my needs meet under any other funding
means. It was a system that was never
designed to meet the needs of a younger person living independently with a
disability. Waiting all day for someone
to come and shower you two days a week was not conductive to finding employment
and often resulted in inappropriate supports.
Again the introduction of Disability Care Australia sees a removable of
younger Australians from this services making room for support of older
Australians living with impairments the support and assistance the need.
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The freeing up of these vital services for older
Australian’s living with disability should have a follow on effect. With the transfer
of public hospital patients to nursing homes happening more freely, more hospital beds and rehabilitation beds
should become available. The introduction of Disability Care Australia should
have a follow on.
As we move from a system that has
been dominated and driven by service provision to a system of disability care
which is designed to be market driven. A system that is drive by a market is a
current that moves according to demand.
The Game May Look The Same
In the disability service industry
that will mean the market will become directly driven by the demand of services
from people living with disability. Not longer with the government be the
gatekeeper of funds. Funds with be
directly accessible by clients and their families to buy the equipment, therapies,
teacher aids and support services they feel will best meet their needs; or
needs of their family member or person the have guardianship over. And yes
where the Adult Guardian Board has guardianship of a person with a profound
disability it will by the Adult Guardian that has the direct buying power of
services and equipment.
This means in regions where there
may be an over supply of support service the forces of market mechanisms may be particularly
felt. This could felt in a number of
ways. The service fees a provider
charges may be force down in order to complete with other services, this will
have some impact on service delivery as services not compete more directly with
each other. However, the opposite may or may not occur in a region which is traditionally
under supplied.
Changes under Disability Care
Australia also mean people wanted to buy a support service will be able to for
the first time approach a genetic service such as Blue Care or private OT and bypass
disabilities services providers altogether.
Within this new delivery system there the freedom to directly employ
support workers or cleaners.
The services, the clients and the
workforce may look the same buy the empire is govern by very different
rules. Support staff and services will
no longer be able to decide how there services will operate or when. If the service delivery is not what, when and
how a client wants, they with be free to look at other services and
change. They may like they way one
service provides personal care but use another service to meet their respite
care needs. In a market which is control
be meeting the support goals of an individual, a service offering a substandard
or even standard service may not survive in a open market place.
At the front door to a disability
support service provider stand the staff. These are the people who provide
direct support needs to people with disabilities, run supported accommodation,
man the respite care day or residential services, the therapists and teachers
aids who have the day to day client contact. Potentially it is these frontline
workers who will feel the shift in the rules the most. As the clients, families
and guardians have an empowered role in how their needs are meet, those caught
giving standard blanket care service delivery, will see a decline in work.
The goal posts are further and
higher than ever before. The goal is no longer
to keep your employer happy but meet the needs of the clients in the way the
want them met. Regardless of whether you
chose to work for an independent agency, be self employed or remain will your
current employer it is the client who is paying your wage.
Not that this is visible by any
direct change. The way you are paid and your entitlement should remain the say
as clients and family members under law must use an independent broker or their
funds. No money will be going into
anyone’s direct bank account unless a service provider is nominated by a client
to directly allocate and distributed funds on behalf of a client in a very simular
way they do now. Except for one major
difference at anytime they are free to request their funds and move to a number
service or means of administration for the funds.
From the time a client enters
into and agreement with disability Care Australian it is them who decides the
level of service delivery they want and what the are prepare to pay for
it. If I know Sally does more housework than Sandy in an hour at a higher standard, I
am going to request Sally, When Peter is more respectful and more fun to be
with, than Paul who supports me every other day, I going to see if Peter can
work with me more often. If Jo takes my
son to the same park everyday for fish and chips and John takes my so to lots
of different places and gets him to eat differ foods and engages him in lots of
different activities I not going to be to keen for Jo to support my son us his
an considerable lower rate of pay.
Clients and families will have a
direct say in their support staff. If
their not happy they know their funding can be moved to another service provider.
Staff who repeated have declines from clients will either sit on the books and
not get the hours they need or be let go. Staff performance with be one of the
biggest challengers as be move to a market driven disability service. Is you kick stronger enough for the changes, Disability
Care Australia will bring.
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