From: To: Community Affairs, Committee (SEN); Subject: Submission to the Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012 Date: Friday, 21 December 2012 6:45:20 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 member of my family is heavily reliant on carers who come into the home 5 days a week for a couple of hours a day. It is BY FAR the BEST service available and provides MUCH MORE than the normal channels of the system!! However, it is NOT available for people who are Australian - only for people who were born overseas. This means that, when the need arises for me and/or my siblings, we won’t be able to get the same level of care because we were born in Australia. Time and again, it’s been proven that it’s best to keep a person living in their own homes and as independent as possible. Why should a person, when they’re at a most vulnerable time in their lives, be subjected to the huge upheaval of moving to a strange environment and living with people they don’t know and/or possibly don’t like? Is it because it’s more convenient to shove them away and out of sight?
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 disability can choose who comes into their home, Increased ability to coordinate services to suit the “whole” person/family
The most important services for the NDIS to provide are:
Equipment and home/vehicle modifications, Support for families and carers, In home care and domestic assistance
I support the introduction of the NDIS.
I have aged parents who have increasing needs - especially as they get older and more frail. They will need to rely on this system more and more to stay as independent as possible. I’ve seen other people forced to place their parents into nursing homes, which have been most traumatic. Why are they so badly neglected? Is this their reward, after working hard, paying taxes and contributing to society all their lives?? Just because a person’s old doesn’t mean they’re not human anymore. One day, most people will be old - rich or poor, influential or not.
I agree for my submission to be made public