Disability Care Australia and Community Participation

One of the driving themes behind the NDIS campaign and now the introduction of Disability Care Australia is the desire for people with disabilities and their families to participate in all areas of life and to have the same freedom to fully participate in society.

There are many places, events and activities which people with disabilities have felt excluded from. Either through the inability to physically access like beaches, pubs, swimming pools, restaurants, art galleries, theaters; or poor access to education and learning supports; limited access braille services and hearing loops, the cost and limited funding for assistance dogs, including guide dogs; cost and delays in home modifications and mobility aids and lack of funding for appropriate support care.

             

The introduction of Disability Care Australia does more than ensure people with disabilities and their families receive the correct types of supports and equipment to meet their needs. It brings Australia into line with UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.  People with disabilities as standing up and saying, I simply want to be counted in!

Many have mistaken the NDIS campaign for another grab for 'entitlements' or 'welfare'! The popular myth: people with disabilities are content with being 'spectators' in society, this is certainly not true in my case nor my friends withe disabilities.  The majority of people I know with disabilities are either engaged in study, community, full time employment or are small business owners like myself. People despite the barriers;  lack of support and community attitudes go out and crave their way into the community.

For me one of the larger challengers of Disability Care Australia will be to reshape our view of 'disability'.  That is to challenge the traditional view or stereotype of disability, to see the abilities, talents and skills that people with disability, to explore new possibilities for people with disabilities and admit past attitude have limited the people with all disabilities.

I personally do not believe we have begun to explore the possibilities that people with disabilities and their families can enjoy with all that advances in medical science; technologically, communications and methods of education have to offer.  The education system continues to allows the labeling of students with disabilities and the schools the attend.  There is no need for the would "Special" to be used in the name of a school.  Just because that school caters  solely for the needs of students with disabilities.  The idea that having a disabilities makes as "special" or "different" is outdated and continues to feed myths and inappropriate attitude to those who deal with disability as part of their daily lives.

Complying with UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. means taking a mature attitude. To treat all people the same.  We need to treat adult with disabilities as adults and require more of them and ourselves.  Individuals need to be treated according to the physical age not the intellectual comparability we mentally assume them to have.  For so often our assumptions are incorrect.

If working with young people with high support needs taught me one thing, time and time again it is how much I underestimate people with intellectual and behavioral disabilities is they deliver so much more than I require of them and the always give a 110%

Means people with disabilities and their families want to be part of every aspect of the Australia way of life and enjoy everything that our beautiful country has to offer. For we too come from the land down under!

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.

Congratulations to Kurt Fearnley

Its great to see our Every Australian Counts campaigners being recongised by all levels of governments. As we work towards the introductions and trail of the National Disability Insurance Scheme to create a fairer system for all people with disabilities, regardless of there disability and how the disability was acquired. Where you live should not determine what level of funding you receive. 

As Kurt points out in his address the current system discriminates, those who are looking employment opportunities and study at tertiary level. There is a wide spread misconception in the community the people with disabilities and the families want handouts.  The purpose NDIS is a move away from welfare, its focus is on helping people with disabilities, their carers or guardians full participate in communities.

Currently many family members of someone with a profound disability would  love to be able to work, however currently the receive little or no support to care for their love one.  For those who require 24 hour care, only 2 weeks, 24hr respite care per year is available for caregivers under 65 in Queensland.

Despite some misreporting in the media, the NDIS is not another welfare payment.  Regard than payments being made on the bases of diagnoses, funding will be goals based, so if someone has a goal to drink at the pub every day, it is not likely to provide that person with funding.  That person receiving free counselling to deal with the anxiety and depression the person has as a result of their disability.

Thanks to people like Kurt at the start of July this year 20,000 people with a disability will trail the NDIS, which is exciting, because we'll get to see what works and what doesn't, before the full scheme is implemented and changes more difficult to make.

We have learnt from decades for using broken systems to see one sizes fits all approaches don't work. Nor do systems that encourage a sense on entitlement. A goal based system encourages people to earn support and hopeful improves self esteem in the process.

If your serous about disability support reform you need to educate yourself about current policies, purposed changes and be activity involved in the decision making process. You can do this by visiting Every Australian Counts Website   

It's often the first step that counts the most!

Debbie

NDIS introduce to parliement

 Today is a historical in the lives of thousands of people with disabilities, their families and carers around Australia as out PM has finally introduced the NDIS Bill.  The Bill we hope gives all people with disabilities regardless of  where they live the same access to therapy support services, respite care and essential equipment.  

It is hoped this Bill ends the lottery games and real funding is provided to meet real needs in our community. You can watch the PM's introduction here.  But as with any new legislation it a presentation of an ideal and much more needs to be achieve before every-bodies needs are meet. The fight is far from won. 'A significant life time disability' still needs to be defined.  Who is covered by the Insurance Scheme remains unclear.  A budget is yet to be set aside.

There's no time foe celebrations, it time to make sure the white paper is correct.  Terms and definitions are clear.  Now is the time to let MP's, regardless of their party know what you needs from NDIS.  We have all seen great policy speeches that yield poor results and wiped with a change in leadership,  We can not afford to let this happen.

I am asking until NDIS is part of the federal budget to keep telling you MP about real people with real needs, so this time every person with a disability needs are meet.

Thank you

Debbie