Spam: Submission to the Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012

From: To: Community Affairs, Committee (SEN); Subject: Spam: Submission to the Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012 Date: Thursday, 17 January 2013 11:03:49 PM

Please consider this email a formal submission by me to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012.

The current disability system has many problems that need to be addressed.

I am a sole carer of my daughter who is now 31 yrs of age. I will be 67 years of age this year and I have had Type 1 diabetes for 45 years now. My daughter’s primary problem at birth was a neural tube defect and secondary hydrocephalus that is shunted. She has an intellectual impairment, visual impairment, poor balance and unstable epilepsy. If we could be granted an increased Individual Support Package, my daughter could possibly transition out of home and I could help settle her into her own accomodation whilst I am still able to do so. We a bad experience with DS and a shared funding arrangement “stitched up” with a service provider not of our choice. My advocacy for an increased Individual Package has been long and arduous and I list some of the issues below for your information:

• No choice of service provider. We were told that a particular service provider had been “identified” by the Department of Disability Services (DS);
• I question the qualifications of certain decision-makers in DS (Qld) to be allocating large sums of government money to a preferred service provider;
• Despite having provided multiple pieces of professional assessment data, I question whether certain decision-makers understand it;
• Major decisions about accommodation and support are made about the person with a disability without sufficient consultation with the family who know the young person best. Sincerely - Barbara Rissman

The main features of the NDIS that will make a difference to the community are:

The ability to receive services when needed and in the way that suits the person, Increased ability to coordinate services to suit the “whole” person/family, Minimising the number of times people have to tell their story in order to get support, Less red tape, with planning done locally by people who know their community, Access to reliable information about support options, People with disability/family will influence the types of support and services offered

The most important services for the NDIS to provide are:

Recreation and community access, Support for families and carers, Accommodation options, In-home care and domestic assistance, Flexible in- home/outside home respite

I support the introduction of the NDIS.

We were told by DS that if we did not proceed with the above-mentioned arrangement and my daughter came back to my care that she would only have 8 hrs per week support which was “non-recurrent and reviewable”. It was my Duty of Care to bring her home because of negligent medication practices causing seizures on public transport and in public places, 3-4 bus connections from the new location to treating medical practitioners near home, and excessive weight due to take-away meals instead of carers helping to prepare healthy meals.

I agree for my submission to be made public

Regards,

Dr Barbara Rissman