Annabelle Lindsay is one of two Australian Gliders who recently had their hopes of competing dashed by a change in the classification rules for wheelchair athletes set to compete at the Games, being told they were now ineligible just weeks before the proposed start of the Games, had they taken place this year.
The Australian and Victorian Governments will enhance the coronavirus response in disability residential care through a strengthened Disability Response Centre to coordinate and manage outbreaks and keep residents safe.
The Federal Government’s emergency response plan to COVID-19 made no mention of people living with a disability, a royal commission has heard. Senior Counsel Assisting Kate Eastman SC said people with a disability and their advocates “watched and waited” for the Government to come up with a plan. But people living with disability were conspicuously absent.
Victorian disability advocacy organisations are calling on the Commonwealth and State Governments to give urgent priority to protecting people with disability from the grave risks of a COVID-19 outbreak, including residents in Victoria’s 800 disability group homes.
Disability groups say a holistic plan is urgently needed to protect Victorians with disability during the state’s extended lockdown period, and prevent a deadly outbreak from occurring in group homes.
Three special schools in Melbourne will be investigated over a series of allegations of “violence, abuse and serious neglect” of students with disabilities over the past 10 years. Victoria’s Department of Education and Training has launched an investigation into multiple claims of mistreatment of vulnerable children at Marnebek School in Cranbourne East, Jackson School in St Albans and Southern Autistic School in Bentleigh East.
Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM says healthcare rationing disproportionately affects people with disabilities but the disparity is often quietly swept under the rug.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a significant policy. Launched in 2016, the NDIS provides support to Australians with a disability, their families, and their carers. But while it has been broadly welcomed, its implementation has not been without significant challenges. This week on Policy Forum Pod we hear from former Labor government Minister Jenny Macklin, Dr Gemma Carey, and Clare Moore about what it will take to fix the NDIS. Pod
An new article in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry explores how changes to Victorian legislation improving human rights have been limited by under-investment and policy failures across the mental health system.
In a joint statement released on Tuesday, the group of more than 25 different organisations, called on senators to block the mobility allowance bill that is currently before the Senate.
This report focuses on people with disabilities who need communication supports or who have complex and multiple support needs and who have come in contact with the criminal justice system. Negative assumptions and attitudes, coupled with a lack of support services and minimal provision of adjustments, often means that people with disabilities are viewed as … Continued
On 5 March 2013, the Law Reform Committee tabled its report on the Inquiry into Access to and Interaction with the Justice System by People with an Intellectual Disability and Their Families and Carers. During the course of the Inquiry, the Committee received 60 written submissions, and convened public hearings with 78 witnesses. The report … Continued
Last June Lyn Bicknell went to her local police station and told officers that if they did not help her she would kill her intellectually disabled son. As desperate as she was – having just been pinned to a chair by the knife-wielding 15-year-old – she admits she would never have gone through with it. … Continued
The big social reforms outlined by the government last week – the aged-care package and the introduction of a National Disability Insurance Scheme – will revolutionise the way we provide care in Australia. The tricky thing is, by the time these reforms are up and running, the foundations on which they are built – namely … Continued