A newly released report shows the Government is still short of its target to have no one younger than 45 living in nursing homes, and no one younger than 65 entering aged care homes, by 2022.
The Victorian government has seized control of two supported care homes in Melbourne’s outer north-west after an investigation revealed coercion and abuse of residents, uninhabitable living conditions, forgery of signatures and access to NDIS services being hindered. Sydenham Grace and Gracemanor (formerly Meadowbrook) supported residential services in Sydenham and Melton South, which house people with mental illness and disabilities, have been placed into administration.
Under these current policy settings, experts say, Australians with disabilities are being left to fend for themselves, as workers with little to no workplace protection fall out of the workforce in droves.
One of Australia’s largest national disability insurance scheme providers has apologised to the residents of two troubled group homes after allegations of violence, abuse and neglect were aired at an inquiry. Life Without Barriers charged residents at a Victoria home a substantial proportion of their disability pension for “rent” despite the property being leased on a peppercorn deal of $1 a month.
A woman with cerebral palsy was sexually assaulted in a public park after her disability accommodation provider refused to let her meet her date in her own home, the disability royal commission has heard.
Of the 1,044,851 reportable incidents lodged by NDIS providers in 2020–2021, a whopping 98.7%, (or 1,032,064) concerned the use of URPs. (Unauthorised Restrictive Practice) That is a staggeringly high number no matter how you look at it. It’s surely not possible for even the most well-resourced organisation to review and consider each one of these incidents.
This report provides an overview of the lessons learnt from more than three years of reviewing disability service provision to people who have died. Sadly, the majority of deaths reviewed are ‘unexpected’ and raise significant concerns about the quality of service provision, possible preventable early deaths, and teach us that oversight and action must continue to be taken on both an individual and system-wide level.
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.
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.
She lived in a tiny room with no window, inside a home filled with bed bugs and stained mattresses, until a COVID cluster helped expose conditions in Hambleton House.
He said the federal government should consider a national community visitor scheme, based on the model in Victoria, where trained volunteers would be authorised by law to inspect the premises of NDIS providers. ““There’s got to be a safety net and there just isn’t.”
Disability support is a matter of significant public and community interest, with employers operating in a highly regulated, accountable and sensitive environment. The type of care and conduct of employees towards those in their care has come under closer scrutiny in recent years as community expectations have shifted to zero tolerance of any form of abuse perpetrated against supported persons.
Does friendship between support workers and people with disability violate professional boundaries, endanger the working relationship, and unwittingly contribute to social isolation? Or is it a positive, natural by-product of compatible people spending a lot of time together?
This change has alarmed me, though it really shouldn’t, and after much thinking and talking with my colleagues, I’ve decided that SCs on the ground probably have a lifespan of three or four years or so before burnout sets in. The refrain is *always* the same – “I. Just. Can’t. Deal. With. NDIS. Anymore.”