NDIA Accountability Project

Experiences of family members with a disability

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: Thursday, 24 January 2013 2:04:23 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.

Both my godson and my mother-in-law have a disability so I have experienced first-hand how damaging the current system is. Neither family have received any significant assistance and only hours and hours of bureaucratic headaches from agencies who think they know best and are unwilling to listen and provide what people actually need and are asking for

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

  • People with a disability can choose the types of support to use,
  • Better access to mainstream support and services,
  • The ability to receive services when needed and in the way that suits the person

The most important services for the NDIS to provide are:

  • Support for families and carers,
  • In-home care and domestic assistance,
  • Flexible in-home/outside home respite

I support the introduction of the NDIS.

To me the most important thing is that the person with a disability or the family or carer of the person with the disability gets the funding, with no strings attached, so that they can access mainstream services at a mainstream price on their own terms. i.e. Live with dignity and choice! It should be Person Centred Funding, not services centred, which will just result in more of the same after a few years. People with a disability and their families are the best qualified to decide on what kind of assistance, care and support they need. This must be central to any reform. The resources’ allocation decision has to rest with the person with special needs and his/her family. Debating those needs with a bureaucratic machine that holds the strings to the purse adds to the financial and emotional cost of the system without adding any advantage.

I agree for my submission to be made public

Regards,

Mr Maurizio Viani