Submission No 42
INQUIRY INTO IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME AND THE PROVISION OF DISABILITY SERVICES IN NEW SOUTH WALES
Name: Name suppressed Date Received: 10 July 2018
Partially Confidential
Its very simple: My son who is 53 years old and lives in the has Multiple Sclerosis which is advancing despite all he can do to try to stay healthy. He can’t walk very well at all now and is unable to’t leave the house. The bus stop is 200 metres away but he can’t manage it. He and his wife have no transport and do not drive a car. (Nor do I and I live five hours away by train.) My son has been waiting for the NDIS for about a year. The appointed social worker from a private organisation helped put in an application for him. But nothing has happened. Previously he received care from a hospital and its various departments – they were underfunded and crowded but at least they were there. The hospital social worker warned him that NDIS is a privatisation of health services and was likely not to deliver. So it has proved to be. He tried to kill himself last January but has now recovered and has a strong mind most of the time. He has had no medical help since the NDIS came in except for a private psychologist who I was able to arrange when he was suicidal. She was willing to visit him at home..But basically he and his wife are on their own. MS is a terrible illness - debilitating in multiple ways.