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

From: To: Community Affairs, Committee (SEN); Subject: Submission to the Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012 Date: Friday, 18 January 2013 9:18:12 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.

A lot of my life right now is dictated by what is a priority decided by government departments and the supposed allocation of monies provided. Not only is the waiting list for equipment very long and drawn out, even when you are assessed as being a priority one in need, there is no guarantee of equipment being supplied. Your needs are not assessed to ensure the highest level of independence possible, it is and can obviously only be assessed on how far equipment can be spread between the number of people using and or needing them. If there is not enough equipment then the next step is to put in more support worker hours Ie.. Instead of having a gopher for you to do your shopping, we will organise some more support hours and someone can take you down and push you around and do the shopping at an agreed time. The people power in the disability services is so stretched to the limited, that they struggle to get to all action needed in any one person’s case, which often means from a consumers point of view that you are constantly needing to ring and reminding them, and to be honest I always feel like I am begging or grovelling :’(.

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

• Ensure support and equipment is available when needed,
• The ability to receive services when needed and in the way that suits the person,
• People with disability/family will influence the types of support and services offered

The most important services for the NDIS to provide are:

• Equipment and home/vehicle modifications,
• In-home care and domestic assistance,
• Crisis and emergency support

I support the introduction of the NDIS.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme should ensure a financial support to people with disabilities that is immediate. It should not be based on waiting lists for available equipment. It is assessed by the persons’ situation and not assessed by how many people need the same thing, and how far state funds will stretch.

There is also less guilt or pressure on acquiring something you need; not having to feel like if you get something, then it means someone else misses out on it, is a much nicer way to have a service.

The NDIS will eliminate differences from state to state and from one age bracket to another. I will be a system that is supported right throughout that people can rely on even if they need to relocate from one state to another.

The NDIS should also weed out the carers who are doing it hard and put in immediate strategies to relieve the situation. For example, Nurses, care workers,

• support workers, doctors etc etc etc are not allowed to lift people, they are to use lifting equipment. But parents and carers are lifting the people they care for all over the place, day in and day out. Often it is people who are for what ever their disability may be, the most difficult to lift and a lot of the time are not able to help. Yet parents and carers more often than not do all the lifting on their own; from the floor to the bed, to bath or shower and even in and out of a car.

• Choosing 3 things from the list above, is not an absolute, because I have no doubt that everything there on the lists need to be considered, they are all areas that people have had struggles with living with a disability. My hope is that you would get a wide variation of ticks which proves the need is out there.

• I agree for my submission to be made public