Independent Assessments
Submission 361
Hello
I would like to request taking part in the Joint Standing Committee Standing committee on Independent Assessments by making a statement.
I have sent this statement below to the NIDS feedback email, and send it to you regarding my concerns about this dreadful and dehumanising Independent Assessment process.
Thanks for your consideration – please feel free to call me on the number below.
to whom it may concern
i recently was a participant in the NDIS Independent Assessment Pilot Program. I would like to express my extreme concern about the process, which i feel was grossly unfair to my brother redacted, who has a significant intellectual disability and epilepsy from a brain injury when he was a toddler.
i did the participant feedback survey online soon after the interview process at house (he lives in a Housing Commission house near my parents) but received the results yesterday by email from Services Australia and am so aggrieved i feel i need to highlight to you in detail the problems i see to save the suffering of others by this process.
tis process flies in the face of all modern disability practice and research, as it is completely reductive of life, reducing his existence and contribution to society to a strict set of skills as to what he is seen as capable of doing. It does not take into account the incredible love that his family and support workers have for him, and how he is effectively a small business that employs four support workers who would not be employed otherwise. That alone is an important contribution to society. One of his support workers has been with for 15 years, the others redacted have been with him for many years redacted too. This would not have happened if he were the reduced human that this report makes him out to be, who by this report doesn’t interact with anyone or do anything productive in his life. Myself, my father and main support worker were all at this assessment meeting and went into great detail about these contextual details in the assessment but none were included – obviously they didn’t fit into any of the prescriptive boxes that had to be ticked off in your survey, even if the questions were irrelevant to life.
Independent Assessments
Submission 361
I think what I also object to is that this report doesn’t take into account the skills of the assessor. While he was a nice man, he was clearly completely out of his depth doing this assessment as he had never had experience with someone with the level of intellectual disability that has before. He iwas a physiotherapist – how was his skills in that profession meant to help him in making an assessment on disabilities? The final report also doesn’t indicate that did try to participate in the assessment for the second half of the interview after he woke up. He was very echolaic and epetitive at that point but he did try to get his view across to the assessor. This is not mentioned. It is unfair to look at this report and think that did not take part at all, when he tried to the best of his abilities. I think this also shows the inadequacy of your assessment process, that it assumes that the person participating is able to give accurate reflections on their abilities in this way. is one of many people with intellectual disability who simpl simply are not able to do that as they do not understand the questions or the process.
The assessor himself left the assessment half an hour early as he clearly wasn’t coping with repetitive behaviours.
If I can give an example of how this is not always the case with , he had an assessment from an occupational therapist only a month before this. She dim not know and had not met him before. But by coming to him with some morning tea (some muffins) and a healthy attitude, she was able to complete all the assessments she needed and he cooperated throughout.
This report does not reflect the complexities of in any way. Instead of empowering the participants it reduces them to a set of meaningless skills. My family was most upset on reading this report and it has caused them significant distress to us all as it doesn’t include the wider context of lif life and contribution to society.
We have grave concerns for this independent assessment process as it doesn’t take into account the broad spectrum of disabilities that are in society.
We argue that it needs major overhaul if not abandoning this process incompletely. Thanks for your time - happy to discuss further if needed.