An inquiry into the Disability Support Pension (DSP) continues to receive submissions from advocacy groups and individuals about how the system is failing people with disability or chronic illness.
Alarming statistics about the violence and abuse experienced by women and girls with disability have been laid bare for a Commonwealth inquiry, including increased reports of strangulation during the pandemic.
I have had the opportunity to access a wide variety of services during my life. The quality that differentiates the best from the rest is the provider’s ability to empower me to make my own choices and not assume that they should take on that responsibility.
Safeguards and quality services are key areas of inquiry for the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation (Royal Commission). Whilst the full report is not due to be handed down until September 2023, there are plenty of updates, reports, and transcripts published on the Royal Commission’s website that provide insight into the critical issues in focus.
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Board today released the 2021 NDIS Annual Financial Sustainability Report (AFSR), which provides a comprehensive financial picture of the NDIS based on the Scheme Actuary’s projections.
Residents with a disability will be able to receive a jab at all state-run vaccination centres without a booking. Ten new vaccination pop-up hubs will also be launched to speed up vaccination rates for Victorians living with a disability.
Providing NDIA with evidence of a person’s functional impairment has proven challenging for many health professionals. The NDIA has developed its own guidelines, which outline the evidence it requires, how it should be presented, and the language in which it needs to be written. This has called for a major re-think for many health professionals as it deviates from a lot of the professional training they have received in report writing and from reports required under other legislation such as Medicare, Workcover, and TAC.
The most recent COVID outbreaks have raised familiar concerns about one of the most complex mainstream interfaces: health and NDIS. And more specifically, what NDIS supports can a person access when they are in hospital?
“We started to get calls saying, ‘When are these guys showing up’?” says Moody, who was until June the chief executive of a peak body for national disability insurance scheme providers. “It’s fair to say that was the cry from providers for the next three months after. ‘When are they coming?’ It was clear something … Continued
Eligible NDIS providers in Victoria will be able to claim a one-off payment from the NDIA to cover costs for support workers to receive their COVID-19 vaccination.
More and more NDIS participants are requesting support workers who are COVID-vaccinated, says company spokeswoman Tiare Leahy.
On the advice of our public health team, all workers – in Melbourne and regional Victoria – on the Authorised Worker list will require their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by Friday, 15 October in order to continue working onsite. They will need to be fully vaccinated by 26 November.
“One of our big concerns is that the Vaccine rollout has been using NDIS participants to identify vaccination rates of disabled people. However, there remain very low rates of participation in the NDIS of First Peoples,”
Minister for the NDIS Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC said it was another important step in protecting the disability community from the virus – and in increasing the number of vaccinated participants.
Senate inquiry told Australia’s disability payment rules need to be ‘rewritten’ as people struggle for months before receiving support