The South Morang centre opened earlier this month, bringing a close to a five-year campaign for an adult respite service in Whittlesea led by the council, Whittlesea Disability Network and local advocate group Respite Alliance Whittlesea (RAW).
The Australian Government will establish a Productivity Commission Inquiry into the role of mental health in the Australian economy and the best ways to support and improve national mental wellbeing.
Minister for Families and Social Services Paul Fletcher announced on September 26 that the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) had reached the milestone of registering its 200,000thparticipant. The number of NDIS participants is predicted to grow to about 460,000 by 202
Kids are naturally curious — this is a wonderful thing. But they also haven’t mastered social cues. This can make parents uncomfortable. What’s painful for disabled kids, and therefore for the parents of disabled kids, is the isolation, Willingham says.
The founder of an autistic-led social enterprise mentoring and empowering autistic people believes businesses are missing out by not actively including autistic people in their workplaces. Their business model as a social enterprise was unique in that Varney and his COO were both autistic, as well as having people with autism on their board.
For a person with a disability, advocates can be crucial to helping them navigate challenges associated with everyday life, like housing or education. But in New South Wales, there’s concern that such advocates will be forced to shut down when the state stops funding them in less than two years.
There were several reasons participants gave low scores. These included having inadequate funding to meet their needs, planners not understanding their disability, planners producing inconsistent plans, and a lack of transparency as to how decisions were made. These findings support concerns expressed in the sector that staff implementing the NDIS don’t have the necessary skills, training, experience, and resources (including time) to assess reasonable and necessary supports.
Beauty is being redefined — this is something on which most of us can agree. The era of the white, thin, Eurocentric model as the only embodiment of glamour is gone. The runways have embraced diversity of skin, shape and age. But for one group they still lag behind: people with disabilities.
Mr Martin continued: “The other members of the committee were all supportive for me to have a go. To me, I think this is what the Convention [on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities] is about. People with disabilities, including people with intellectual disability, having a say and showing the world that yes, we can do this.”
As predicted, new figures show that the National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) expenditure on consultants, labour hire firms and outsourced service delivery in 2017-18 totalled about $600 million. From The Australian:
Therese Sands, joint chief executive of People with Disability Australia, said it was worrying to see such a significant amount unspent on the NDIS had contributed to social security and welfare savings. “This means people with disability aren’t getting access to the essential disability services that they need,” she told Guardian Australia. “People with disability are telling us every day about problems they are having in getting enough supports from the NDIS to make sure they can live an equal and good life.”
The Victorian government on Wednesday announced $1 million funding to develop a new NDIS vocational training program, focusing on ethics, abuse and power – led by the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) in partnership with RMIT University and the Future Social Service Institute (FSSI). FSSI director David Hayward said he wanted ethics training in the curriculum from day one, and not just as an “optional extra”. He said currently ethics training was “hidden under” the competency based certificate.
Ms Desmond said the school needed to be held to account for inappropriate decisions, but the buck stopped with Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff. “Parents are fighting day after day, year after year, to get appropriate adjustments,” she said. “It’s about time that schools that aren’t providing appropriate adjustments are held to account. and it’s about time the Department was held to account to ensure experiences like this don’t happen.”
Glenhaven Estate, Sale, has become home to a world leader in disabled care, after an innovative housing project focusing on enablement, rather than disability, was unveiled recently. The revolutionary Freedom Housing project gives people with disabilities or those who need aged care the opportunity to live in a conventional residence with their families, but still access in-house professional care. Four private homes are linked by a communal ‘key’, which stations home carers who can provide on-request care around the clock.
The family of a young Melbourne woman who has been living in a nursing home for the past two years is calling for more funding so she can be cared for at home.