Poor disability support practices highlighted
The DSC (Disability Services Commissioner) 2018 annual report and review of disability service provision to people who have died 2017–18 was tabled in Victorian Parliament on the 19/12/2018.
Resources
Empowering people with disabilities, without exploiting support workers
In this lecture Professor Tom Shakespeare – a leading disability expert in the UK and Europe, talks about how new models of social care can facilitate greater flexibility and freedom and empower people with disability, while also present new risks to workers, as support work becomes increasingly insecure.
NDIS Sector Development Podcast
A Podcast for Disability Service Providers transitioning to the NDIS.
Choice and control at risk for NDIS participants
Choice and control for National Disability Insurance Scheme participants is at risk due to critical workforce shortages and inadequate market supervision, a parliamentary committee says.
Unpaid carers facing significant economic disadvantage
Unpaid carers in Australia face a significant economic disadvantage, research reveals, prompting the launch of a campaign to bridge the gap between unpaid care and workforce participation.
Recognising Restrictive Practices
This resource is a set of short films and accompanying guide that explore the use of restrictive practices and encourage disability support workers and supervisors to reflect on and talk about less restrictive ways of supporting people with disability. It was developed by National Disability Services, by the Victorian Government and developed with support from the Victorian Office of Professional Practice.
wasn’t going to watch him suffer anymore’: Mother who tried to murder her autistic son after caring for him for three decades blames her actions on the disability support system after she avoids jail
Yvette Nichol, 60, had been primary carer for autistic and epileptic son Brett, 34. Nichols avoided jail and blames the disability support system for her actions. She attempted to take his and her own life in 2016 but had remorse .
Restrictive Intervention Data System cohort follow-up study
This project investigated the prevalence of persistent restraint and its predictors among individuals with a disability accessing residential services in Victoria. Taken together the results suggest that people who are administered antipsychotic medications or who have autism or difficulty communicating to others are at greater risk of being restrained or secluded in the long term and staff report that positive behaviour support is reducing the number of people subjected to restrictive interventions.
Preventing and Responding to Abuse: Guidance for Victorian disability service providers’ Resources
The Office of the Disability Services Commissioner held a conference called Preventing and Responding to Abuse: Guidance for Victorian disability service providers’ on 12th September 2017. It was well attended by over 400 people. The resources from this conference and videos are available now on their website.
Increase in abuse and neglect in mental health and disability facilities
In one home for people with disabilities, toilet paper was rationed. In another, a resident was left in the garden for two hours on a roasting hot day. He had to be taken to hospital for exposure and sunburn.
Factors associated with the use of mechanical restraint in disability services
Mechanical restraint refers to the use of materials or devices to restrict the behaviours of a person with a disability, where the restraint is neither for therapeutic purposes or required by law. The inappropriate use of mechanical restraint is recognised in legislation and policy as a violation of people’s human rights, and a risk to their health and wellbeing. Understanding who is at risk of mechanical restraint may assist service providers to better support people with a disability.
Autism Plus, DHHS failed to protect disability clients after alleged assaults: Ombudsman
A teenager who allegedly sexually assaulted a housemate several times in a disability group home posed a threat to residents for months because of authorities’ “shocking” failure to act, Victoria’s ombudsman has found.
Lifestyle Solutions: Accusations of sexual abuse at national disability provider
A Queensland mother has called for national disability provider Lifestyle Solutions to be closed down after it reinstated a carer accused of abusing her intellectually disabled daughter. The call comes as the Victorian Government announces it has ripped up contracts with Lifestyle Solutions to run two state-owned group homes over client safety concerns and “shortcomings” … Continued
Mum at breaking point over son’s plight
Tammie Lansley feels she may be forced to relinquish care of her son Nathan to the government — because the government won’t offer her the support she needs to look after him.
Disability services provider Autism Plus to be reviewed over sexual assault claims, Victorian Government says
The Victorian Government has launched an independent review of a disability group home provider accused of ignoring claims of sexual abuse of its clients.