What does the introduction of the NDIS mean for you?

 Changing roles under the NDIS

The introduction of the National Disability Insurance  Scheme (NDIS) affects us all. Not just through an increase in the Medicare Levy. The scheme reminds each of us we are only one serious accident away from a permanent disability and need for assistance ourselves.

Imagine if you had a horse riding accident tomorrow and your spinal cord is broken at the bottom of your neck. The good news is you survive and are eligible for assistance under the NDIS, this can be organised while you spend up to the next 12 months in a rehabilitation hospital, as one of the priorities of the funding is early intervention program to get you 'back into life again'.

The bad news is you will never be able to move anything below your lower neck again and you will need to access 24 hour care for the rest of your life. When you go to bed at night someone will need to come in and turn you every few hours so you don't get a pressure sore. You are now dependent on somebody else for everything. You can't even starch you nose. 

More bad news you have a physical disability. You intellectual process, thoughts and feelings are all as there were before.  You are lucky! You can still speak and voice your thoughts and feelings and soon every therapist, doctor and nurse is going to know about it.

Each person that walks or wheels into your room for the next 12 months is going to have the opinions on, 'how you can put your life back together'. You are forced to listen and proceed with your daily therapy. While you are feeling unheard you are also grieving for you loss of mobility and the life you once knew.

It gets worst you are a professional support worker, you know how to help people with disabilities, you know what you want and you can still communicate this clearly, but your wishes are often dismissed. Instead you receive constant reminders you are the patient. . .

Relax . . . this is not your current reality and I hope no one reading this ever experience this reality. Because the funding for NDIS is so individualized the best way to providing training and understanding of how this new system works is to provide examples.  

The priorities for funding under the NDIS are very different to what is currently here in Queensland. Under the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the funding priorities are early intervention, access to therapies, medical aids, mobility aids and technologies; education; employment; accessing public transport and buildings, meaningful community participation, access to the arts and sporting participation.

Despite popular misconception, the introduction of the NDIS is not a change in funding roles between the state and federal governments. Under the NDIS funding is assigned to and individual or family based on the goals and lifestyle choices. Rather than a diagnoses made by a doctor at birth or time of injury.  For the first time a person’s funding package will look at all their needs and how best to enable them to achieve their own lifestyle goals. 

This is not merely a changing of the guard or a change in who is paying the bills. The choices clients and their families will make about their own lives.  A change which will be directly felt by support workers who work one-on-one with clients. For the first time clients and/or their families will be able to chose the service or services they want to access for their support needs.  

These revolutionary changes will be based on the clients lifestyle choices (ie to life independently in their own home near the beach); and their goals and aspiration (eg to play basketball in the Australian Special Olympics team).  Support to attend training and travel to tournaments with be a large feature in this person support package. My recommendation is the person who supports this person will need to be both fit and a early rises.

This fundamental shift to funding being assigned based on individual lifestyle and goals, will see a big shake up in how and when clients are supported and the organisation that is most suitable to support them. 

While support has always been based on a goal, (such as to enable the client to leave the house), all their goals and how they will achieve them is now determined by them and their families or careers. This is their lives, their dreams, their goals and their choices! The NDIS is ALL ABOUT CHOICE.

MY LIFE! MY CHOICE!

SELF-DIRECTED FUNDING  

Regardless our how you view you're client’s ability to make choices, around their lifestyles. As a support worker it is your job to assist your client to achieve their goals. If their goal is to organised a surprise party for their dad's 80th Birthday, but you doubt their ability to achieve and afford the party, as a professional support worker your role is only to enable the client to achieve throwing a successful party.  Whether they then occur a debt, under the rules of the NDIS is their choice and their responsibility. 

Until now in Queensland people with disabilities and their families have had little choice on who will support them, when they will be supported and what they will be support to do.

Currently, the Department of Communities undertakes an assessment and decides the types of support you need e.g. community support, personal care, in-house, respite care and how many hours that will before. They then place you with a service that will provide that support. 

Despite popular beliefs held by support workers a number of factors which currently determine the way you support clients. This includes their diagnoses, the type of disability (e.g. physical disability); whether the disability is progressive; even their post code.  The chances are whether you are on a in-house support shift or a community access shift has not been determined by your boss, but the Departments of Communities. 

It always amuses me when my staff complain they weren't told what we were we're doing on a particular day. As they are always informed Debbie will tell you what she needs when you arrive at her place. The fact that my support plan clearly states my support will be center around my needs at the particular time of the shift (I might wake up vomiting and that will change what I had planned for the day.) I am a real person and real people get sick).  The change with the introduction of the NDIS is that clients no longer need to negotiate with the scope of what 'my needs at the time of the shift' means. 

Self-directed funding means the client choose who will support them, which what activities the will be supported and when they will receive their support. Without a support service being in control of a client's funding, the division of funds will be directed by the client or their guardian. So if a client wishes to be supported at a time when higher penalty rates are paying and receive less hours of support, under the NDIS that is their choice.  

The major priority for funding under the new NDIS is to ensure the human rights of all Australians with a disability and their families are upheld. Just as you have the right to choose things like where you send your children to school and what type of work you do. People living with disability and their families have the same basic rights regardless of the intellectual ability.

Under NDIS even the Adult Guardian Board will be held more accountable to ensure its client have access to choice and the way they are cared for. The NDIS is very much about empower people with disabilities to exercise their right of choice.

It may interest you to know current there are 30 articles on the Human Rights For People with Disabilities. Currently there are hearings occurring in Geneva around Australia's record in upholding the rights of people living with disabilities. As recently as September the Australian Government was using the introduction of the NDIS as its defence and omission that until now it has been in violation of the convention and these articles. The stakes for getting the implementation of the NDIS spot on are very high.

The changes we are about experiences are fundamental and will be felt far beyond the disability sector. These are changes that demand dignity and respect of all people living with disabilities and a goal of social inclusion.  Therefore will be felt:-

• The Public Health System 
• The Public Trust
• Private Therapist
• Education System
• Public and Private Schools
• Transport System
• Equipment Providers
• Public Housing
• Telecommunications 
• Technology Specialist  
• Medical Providers 
• and Support Services Providers of course.  

As the framework for this new model of social reform was being developed under the guidance of the Productivity Commissioner, people with disabilities and their families were very clear the things they wanted the NDIS to achieve the most is social inclusion with meaningful participation in their community.  

They have asked for specific things to be included such as education, employment, an end to underemployment, accessibility to bookshops, libraries, restaurants; recreational activities, sports, sporting venues, gyms, and theaters.

People were very, very specific and very clear on what the visions was for the future. Remember the person in the hospital who was told they would need 24 care, their minds, their thoughts, the feelings, their passions and their dreams are still present. Their vision about a future living with a disability is now taking shape. Their ideas to will be wishes on how they want to be supported will too clearly stated at the right time.    

The person you next support to develop a lifetime support map, could be your husband, your daughter, your grandson or your father. What kind of choices would you want to enable them to make?

Would you be happy for them to go see a movie every day?  Or sit fishing in the summer sun for six hours? If you was the person with the spinal injury and you wanted to stay in bed an hourly longer or have a PJ day; how would you feel if you were made to get up and get dressed? 

With the National Disability Insurance Scheme, trips to the beach, a night at the movies or local pub aren't on any agenda under this reform. The game has changed. Yes, I am sure some clients, who will chose to be continued supported in same way they have always been supported.

The NDIS means We're no longer debating over a clients right to watch an adult movie or get drunk. Our role is now about demanding buildings are accessible. Assisting the client to apply for work or choosing a swimming coach; engaging an advocate so your client can join a choir (as an  intellectual disabilities doesn't affect the voice, just the way you need to teach the person the words.)

If clients are genuinely continuing disappointed with the service receive and/or if the feel their choices are not herd,  NDIS gives them the freedom to go to another service.

I know there are people who like to complain and nothing ever seems good enough for them.  Want to know how I know this? 

Well, I spend about 10 hours every listing to support workers complaining about everything from the husband not putting the wheelie bin out the night before; the neighbours setting traps for the cats because they’re not keeping them in at night; being cheated on by boyfriend; clients not answering the door; shifts either being too short or too long and then of course there’s the weather.

Excuse me - I the one sitting in the wheelchair, I really need to start charging counselors rates, as my degree is in Behavioural Science. For some workers . . . should I chose to complain, I am accused of being hormonal! The fact I have a disability somehow the gives me a hassle free life. Go figure! (For the record that was the week I wrote three grant submissions!) 

If clients are upset for the right reason they will change their provider, just like you won't return to the hairdresser who didn't listen to you. The game has change!

       

     

Everyone has potential!

October 16 2013 is Blog action day! Its a day where bloggers around the world link up through social media to draw attention to a single issue or event. This is the 4th year I have participated in the event.    Every blogger taking part in the event has a badge to signified their participation. For more information visit the website

  The theme for 2013 is HUMAN RIGHTS. When I think of human rights I naturally thing of issues such as children sold in to sex slavery, the treatment of women in the third world; restrictions on religious practices and children captured by the IRA in Africa. 

However, human rights issues are involved wherever a restriction on individual choice is made.  To read more on current Human Rights concerns for the UN visit their Human Rights Page. 

Right now, it may shock you to know a large Human Right  Issue is emerging here within Australia. 

It's the issue I wrote about in last years blog post for Blog Acton Day or BAD#12. The National Disability Insurance Scheme or the  NDIS. Since that time the NDIS has undergone a name change and current under trail in five states around Australia, and will be phase in across all states over next five years.  Recently here in Australia we had an election and the new government has reverted back to the name of the NDIS.

For the first all levels of government across Australia recognized that people with disability and their families have the right to CHOICE. This recognition brings us into line with the UN charter of Human Rights. In making this recognition Australia highlights the are different possibilities for individuals, regardless of the nature of their disability and the level of impairment.  

However Australia has a long road to travel insuring the Human Rights of all Australian's living with disability have all their basic Human Rights meet. Even in Australia people living with disability are three to four times likely to be living below the poverty live, have little say about their residential address, are denied basic medical treatment on the bases they are already disabled, 1 in 3 women with disability experience some form of sexual assault with is higher among women living in residential care and most preputaters are male staff.           

This is a no frills approach to disability care. 

• No choice in meal times
• Little choice in what they eat.
• Set shower times
•   Clothing chosen for them
• Set activities

These are major breeches in the UN's charter to Human Rights. Breeches that could cost Australian its position on the security council.  Other issues include better access to the community, transport, education, skills development, full employment and  equal pay issues.  It is undeniable that Australians with disabilities continue to have restricted choices and at high risk of abuse from those who care for them.   

Hearings and reports to the UN have recently taken place. On blog Action Day I am going to tell you some person stories of breeches I know of in terms of Humane Rights.  

Goals Posts for Support Workers

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.

ü  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 1^st July 2016).

ü  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.

ü  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 1^st July 2016 in Queensland.

ü  What Disability Care Australia aims to do is close a gap in service provision for younger Australians living with disability.

ü  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.

ü  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.

ü  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.      

Disability Care Australia has counted us in!

Facts and Figures 

Budget 2013/2014

Regardless of what side of politics you support today marks the sign of a mature country as for the first time we acknowledge that in Australia Everybody counts! Including people with serve to profound disability. As  Disability Care Australia begins to rolled out on July 1 2013 five trail sites around Australia will begin delivering support to those with disabilities and their families based on the goals of an individual rather than simply based on their 'perceived needs'.

People with disabilities have united with one voice to say "count me in!" When the polls open on polling day "count me in!"; next time you design a new building "count me in!" ; when you're looking at town planning "count me in!" ; when you're advertising for new staff "count me in!" ; when you're designing a new building "count me in!" ;  when you're planning the 2018 Commonwealth Games "count me in!"  and wherever you celebrating being a proud Australian "I want to be counted in too!"

We are a proud sporting nation, just as we are proud of the many Australian sports men and women we as people with disabilities want to say counts us in as you celebrate and come celebrate with us to! As we celebrate on 16 May 2013 the passing of Disability Care Australia and the pledge to fund it well into the future was fully support by both sides of polices and all states except Western Australia today.

As Australians are about to go head to head in the next federal election, the budget seems to be emptied and promise little accept for people with a disability who have campaigned to BE COUNTED for many, many years. This year budget delivered them Disability Care Australia and secure funding for many years. 

Yesterday as the Prime Minster recalled some of the people in Queensland who personall;y thanked her for bring hope and meaning to their lives she wept, she felt with compassion. It was the same compassion I was greeted with last week.  I had few words for her as we looked eyes and she thanked me and I thanked her.  We knew we together along with tens of thousands of people had delivered a better future for people with disabilities   I knew she was geniune when she talks about the NDIS and now Disability Care, the NDIS means as much to her as it does to me. I know because I looked straight into her eyes myself. 

From July next year the Medicare levy will rise by 0.5% raising 20.4 billion dollars over the next four years to assist 460, 000 people (or about 2% of the general population) with disabilities and their families once the scheme is fully operational. No long will people have to fundraiser for a new wheelchair as their child grows and we can now begin to expand our minds to building purpose built accommodation for young people with a disability needing 24 hours support. No longer will age care be their only option. 

The community of Illawarra is one of the first launch site for Disability Care Australia beginning on July 1 this year.  Where approximation 8, 000 people with disabilities and their families are said to benefit from the schemes introduction. 

By 2020 people with disabilities and their family members will finally have the support the need to live full and meaningful lives in the community in which they choose to live, learn, work and play alongside every other Australian.  Because Australia we're in! 

May 15 2013 Prime Minter introduces Disability Care Australia to Parliament and breaks
in tears a she recalls the thank you card Sandy gave her. A card I had also signed and
watch Sandy hand it to her myself.  A day I witnessed history, a day I was very proud
to be an Australian who counted!

    

   

NDIS no longer an election issue

With the Disability Care Australian legislation funded by a 0..5% increase in the medicare level being introduced to Federal Parliament last night by Prime Minister Julia Gilard, the NDIS is no longer an election issue.  Its introduction is supported by both sides of politics and passed through the lower house unopposed.

A truly historical moment as a piece of legislation that started as a grass roots campaign through years of discussion with people with disabilities, their families and the people who work with them on a day to day bases.  A model of care giving people a greater say in how they wanted to be supported was developed and refined. It then underwent a parliamentary inquiry when people with disabilities and family members spoke directly to the inquiry to express their needs and frustrations.       

Currently people with disability live under a cloud of uncertainty. Even those who are currently receiving so funding to meet their support needs, years of political ping-pong leave them unsure of the future.  Many families feel trapped and isolated as funding is tied to an geographical reason and if a family member is transferred due to employment the family is forced to chose between looking for another job or giving up their current support networks with the very real risk there will be no support in the new locations.

These are conditions in the lives of those will disabilities and there families live with.  Conditions that other Australians could not possibility relate too.  Those fortunate to receive sure support are literally bound to an geographically area. 

Older careers with sons and daughters needing 24 hour care live in fear, 'what happens to my child when I die?'  The future has looked bleak for a very long time.  Its a society that has allowed people with very high needs live in nursing homes, while others have only received a shower once a week. A system liked to a lottery by some and justly unfair for others.  

Disability Care Australia is not a change in funding agreements between states and federal governments as a change in funding arrangements could not deliver the kinds of changes that people with disabilities and their families have demanded, campaigned and fought for over the last 5 years. 

I know in my home state of Queensland the Department of Disability Services was built of a fundamental flaw. If is a prehistoric system design in the 1970's to support ex residents of the state institutions to living in the community. In the main these were people thought to have high support physically and intellectual needs and under the care of the adult guardian and public trust.  Today about 46, 000 people with high support needs are supported by the Queensland government.

In recognizing his this original historical group supported by Disability Services Queensland has significant changed since the 1970's a total restructured to better reflect not only today's population but well into the future.  For the first time we will have a structure of disability care for future instead of applying band aids to gaping wounds. 

Disability Care Australia does more than provide hope to people with disabilities and than families. It is the first time that Australia has legislated to meet the basic Human Rights of Australians with disabilities. 

The right to not just enjoy a shower everyday, but a shower everyday at a time and a place of their choice the right to shower after playing sport, not before because that fits in with the staff at the service.  

The service provision model will move for meeting needs to assisting in obtaining goals over the next five years.  It a system designed to end isolation and allow full participation in community life, when, where and how people chose that occurs.  That choice needs to be made on an individual bases, what I choose will look very different to Mary living in Port Linkin South Australia and yet if I chose to move to Lizmore New South Wales  my care package for the first time will remain unchanged.

This is not just a funding reformed that can be changed in September when the opposition  is predicted to take power.  This is about to become law to begin to see social change from July 1 this year.  It is the one budget announcement that will be unchanged by a change in government.  I surspect if Labor wanting a budget to by votes the budget wouldn't of failed to deliver on promise are the promise. Delaying tax cuts is not a typical voting buying budget.  For once the right thing was done for all the right reasons. 

During the progress of writing this post the Disability Care Australia legislation was passed in the Senate.  The NDIS finally nailed in and there's no turning back. The introduction of the NDIS is no longer an election issues.  

Care Connect is an organization that prepares to

deliver support to individuals and families 

living with disability under 

Disability Care Australia.

Challenging the Meaning of Possibilty

They say a picture paints a thousands words as I struggle to aid you in your understanding of the new Disability Care Australia and who we as a community must begin to challenge what is possible I came across this u-tube clip. What do I mean by access to all areas.  I think in a historical context this pair of highly trained dances would of been denied access to this stage.

Certainly neither of this couple would qualify for assistance under Disability Care Australia.  Nor are they the types of impairments that the system seeks to assist.  The video does however challenge our preconceptions of disability and what is truly possible.  One by one each barrier must be removed as we march towards full inclusion and allow people access to all areas.  Not just a spectators but full participants in the recognition we are all gifted in some way.   

She without arm, he without leg - ballet - Hand in Hand - YouTube: 

The maze towards the introduction of Disability Care Australia is a difficult one, as we train our selves to ask what is possible and how do we get there.  Where are the safety nets in this new system?  How do we give people with disabilities and their families real choices with Access To All Areas while protecting their vulumberity to preparatory that may not want to play the game fairly. 

Tonight as I write this posts their are many questions I can not give you.All I can reassure you of is Wednesday's agreement between the state and federal government means for the first time people with disabilities have access to support and resources to enable them to access all areas of Australian live for the first time in history.

The people will like the two ballet dances can live lifestyles of their choosing, without being governed by geographically boundaries and locations where support services are available.  The workings to a system we calling market driven are not yet as clearly defined as I like.  How can I receive a service in Dably Queensland if that serivce that I need does not exsist?  I do know under the Disability Care legislation service will need to change the way they deliver many of their supports.  To answer these and many other question is going to take some pretty revoluationary thinking just like the corrgraphar of this dance.  

Access All Areas

The ability of people with disabilities to access all area is a the core of the legislation that underpins the introduction of (NDIS) now known as Disability Care Australia.  As I been sharing Disability Care Australia is designed to do much more than bring needed funding reform to the disability care sector.  While care and support are essential elements is the legislation they are not the focus.   

Rather Disability Care Australia aims to ensure the Human Rights of people with disabilities or access to all areas. Historically people with disabilities, their families and careers have been segregated in Australia. This has meant previously the abilities of those with physical, intellectual, behavioural, neurological and psychological impairments have often been overlooked as we have attempted and failed to meet the needs of a growing population.  

As medical discoveries are made, more people survive the initial critical period where the impairment occurs. Thus the historical life expectancy and predicted outcomes on which traditional social funding systems were founded are no longer applicable.

In Australia it is time to take a more mature look at 'disability' and what it is and what it is not. Broadly speaking disability is a lost of impairment resulting in the reduction of a persons ability to function at standard compacity.  Impairment can be physical, intellectual, sensory, behavioural,neurological, psychological or a combination of one or more of these impairments. A person with disabilities lies somewhere on a continuum between total loss of abilities thought to be less than 2 % of the population with disability and those classified as having no impairment or disability.

So as we begun to have mature discussions around the implementation of (NDIS) Disability Care Australia we need to be clear on two accounts:

1. The definition of disability and varying levels of impairment.
2. and how does that or does that not impact an person's abilities 

As we move away from historical models of 'disability' were these two issues were traditionally inter-winded, we must now begin the road to untie the two and learn to define them clearly for each individual we label as living with a disability. For each person the dot point on the continuum of level of impairment and level of ability will be very different.

       

Historical models of funding have only looked at the first of these continuum(s):- level of impairment. Until now the decision to assign support and how much support has been solely based on impairment levels. Using this model administrators would compare the impairments of all types to define a person living with a serve disabilities. That's a bit like comparing a Granny Smith Apple with a Pink Lady.

Luckily for people with disability and those who share their lives the signing of the Disability Care Australia legislation leaves behind the use of comparison models and funding based on impairment,  what a person can not do.  For we now recognize ability for its true value.  Regardless of the particular ability it still an ability. A person's impairment may only allow very limited ability such as eye movement and breathing. Regardless of their perhaps profound impairments we now must recognize all of the abilities of the person being assessed and ask, given the right supports at the right level what is possible.

Is it possible this person can have a life in the community without being accommodated in a nursing home? Can this person with a profound level of impairment have access to all areas and how can that be achieved. As we learn to ask these new questions this revolutionary system is demanding our answers our time will change as too will our definition of level of impairment. 

Certainly the productivity commission in setting the prematures for the NDIS sort to challenge the limitations and the limiting conditions that have historical lead to the exclusion of people with serve to profound n disabilities and their families for community activities including education, employment, sport, leisure, art and cultural, business, housing and politics. Disability Care Australia is very much geared towards giving people with disabilities and their primary career givers access to all areas, based on their abilities rather than level of impairment.

One tool. that enables us to offer more access to more areas than ever before is the role of advances in technology and the way they allow more people with disabilities to independently communicate with others and move independently about our community. It is our attitudes to these rapidly changing abilities and possibles for people that needs to very quickly take a turn around.

The person who only has physical abilities to breath and move their eyes has a spinal cord injury given the right equipment and support from Disability Care Australia it is possible for this individual even with a profound level of disability to live in their own home, move independently in a wheelchair through breathing, enjoy computer access, communicate through communication aids and gain employment.  A person previously requiring nursing home care is able to full access all areas providing we enable those areas to be accessible. 

Unfortunately community attitudes and ignorance of the possibilities that continue to deny people with disability regardless of the level of reduction of impairment true access.  We are still struggling in tradition common ground such as accommodation, education and retail and now Disability Care Australia on July with begin to challenge the area of employment and justice. We have a lot of public education to do before the fully functioning Disability Care System arrives in 2019.     

Let us stop focusing on what people are not able to do so together we can assist each other to see the possibilities and provide the resources for people with disability reach their potential. Let's enjoy the revolution that gives access to all areas.