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 8:40:44 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 do not receive anywhere near adequate/decent quality blindness-related services - eg Orientation & Mobility training. The Association for the Blind here in WA and similar agencies around the country are simply inadequate and often outdated in regard to areas like O&M and/or other independence skills (eg cooking, household management etc). When one makes contact with the Association for the Blind (or similar agencies in other states) asking for O&M training, one is typically put on a waiting list and could be waiting several weeks, even months. When one finally gets an instructor, one is supposed to feel lucky to get a couple of hours a week. O&M training typically focuses on teaching a person to get from A to B and back (home to work, local shops etc and back), with a distinct lack of long-term or broader approach to develop their greater understanding of the layout of their area, town etc, so that they are better able to explore and navigate less familiar places and be les s reliant on O&M instructors in the first place. We have no hope of developing such spatial awareness skills if we are relegated to a meagre couple of hours per week (or maybe double if one is super lucky!). Getting around confidently by oneself should not be a luxury item. Similarly, cooking and other household management skills are still being taught at a very basic level by occupational therapists. (What does an OT have to do with cooking skills any way, unless, of course, he/she happens to be a competent cook/chef?) We are constantly hearing about the shortage of resources in these areas - especially the shortage in O&M instructors; yet there was apparently no shortage of resources for the Association for the Blind’s state-of-the-art gym, which was part of their redevelopment a few years ago. Then there’s the lack of funding for adaptive technology. I am still waiting to find out if I’ll get access to funding via the Disability Equipment Grant here in WA to purchase a B raille display. It is high time we, the community who are supposed to be benefitting from the disability funding, actually had control over it!

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

• Ensure support and equipment is available when needed,
• People with a disability can choose the types of support to use,
• Better access to education and work opportunities,
• More employment of people with disability and less reliance on social welfare,
• More rights for people with a disability,
• People with a disability can plan their lives and pursue their goals and dreams,
• People with disability can choose who comes into their home,
• 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,
• People with disability/family will influence the types of support and services offered,
• Older parents and families will not worry what happens when they can no longer provide support.

The most important services for the NDIS to provide are:

• Equipment and home/vehicle modifications,
• Education support.

• (technology/services/equiment), Life-skils, Emplyment suppot
• I soutain the introdution of the NDIS.
• I soutain a systen wher I can finaly get accessto sutch servics as thos describd in ny frst response. Tha NDIs mut b eble t o ensur thi ado so much soonr tan tha anticiptad ful rolout fo tha sceme. Thi curnt situaion is simply unaccepatable an amouts too secod-cass citizenship!
• I agre foe m y submissin to ba mad publc

Regads,

Ms Viven Palcic