Victorians with a disability, their families and carers will have better access to health services and much needed respite during the coronavirus pandemic, with a funding boost from the Victorian Government.
We’re investing $2.2 million in advocacy organisations so they can make sure people with disability, including children and students, are appropriately supported during the pandemic with things like phone and online services.
Whether it’s been the bushfires, the floods, the disability royal commission or the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been there, beside our leaders at every press conference. Auslan interpreters have been in high demand this year as they convey critical and life-saving information to the deaf and hard of hearing community.
A disability carer allegedly secretly filmed videos of himself physically and verbally abusing five vulnerable adults and sexually abusing two children in western Sydne
The answer to these and similar questions of equal access and fundamental rights of disabled people must be yes. Yes, it is always appropriate for disabled people to advocate for our rights, for full accommodation and inclusion, no matter what else is happening.
The HSU, along with other NDIS Unions (HSU, the Australian Services Union and the United Workers Union) and the employer peak-body, National Disability Services (NDS), filed the application to vary the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 to insert the allowance.
A coalition of advocacy groups are demanding the government include people receiving the disability support pension on the fortnightly $550 COVID-19 supplement following the exclusion of disabled people and their carers, despite welfare recipients such as those on JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and Austudy being eligible.
The coronavirus pandemic is keeping us at home due to widespread unemployment, school closures and social distancing. This has already led to concerns about an upsurge in domestic and family violence.
A new app backed by the NDIS has been developed to bring together those in need of care with workers searching for employment.
Australians with disabilities say they are being forgotten as the Federal Government rolls out its $213 billion stimulus response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those on the Disability Support Pension will miss out on the Coronavirus Supplement payment, which is $550 a fortnight. And with the current social distancing measures in place, many people with disabilities say they’re struggling to go about their daily lives.
Although the experts welcomed the response plan, they say it needs to be based on human rights and principles to make sure ethical decision-making is used. Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Disability Innovation Institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Jackie Leach Scully says that the national response plan is just the starting point of ensuring the needs of people with disability are met.
The lack of awareness of our human rights permeates throughout the health sector and recent hearingsby the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability have shed light on the human cost. Health sector responses have been a life-and-death matter for people with disabilities for a very long time. Throw in a global pandemic and reforms to health sector policy and practice have never been more urgent.
The plan looks at potential issues for people with disability including reliance on close contact with carers and support workers, vulnerability to respiratory illnesses, and barriers to receiving health care.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a vital piece of national infrastructure which has enormous potential to be used extremely effectively throughout this looming challenge, write Laura O’Reilly and Karn Ghosh.
In brief – This article outlines the legal obligations of providers to uphold client and employee privacy and workplace safety during the COVID-19 Pandemic and suggested strategies to strike the right balance are outlined below including a privacy impact assessment.
People with disability are at significant risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing this as Australia’s senior government officials and politicians have barely mentioned disability.