From: To: Community Affairs, Committee (SEN); Subject: sub933Submission to the Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012 Date: Thursday, 17 January 2013 2:03:57 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.
It is uncoordinated. We work with mainly one arm - The CP Alliance and it is nearly impossible to find out other service by other providers which would be beneficial for our son. Each individual recognised with a genuine disability need some sort of overall coordinator, not through CentreLink, the people there don’t have the experience or ability to think and plan.
If you don’t know what to ask for, you don’t get it - better information system pulling together services provided by multiple providers who have been assessed as qualified to offer services.
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 education and work opportunities, People with a disability can plan their lives and pursue their goals and dreams
The most important services for the NDIS to provide are:
Education support (technology/services/equipment), Life-skills, Employment support, Positive behaviour support and psychological services
I support the introduction of the NDIS.
Primarily to offer the disabled knowledge, confidence and choice in the health services system to support them throughout their whole life.
I believe there needs to be a more organised, coordinated approach to supporting people with the a disability to be part of mainstream life and to educate others to support them. It is incredibly fragmented and duplicated for most their funding is assessed and approved by Centrelink which changes their assessment criteria to suit government budgets. If a child is diagnosed as disabled, how on earth do they think they are going to grow out of it!! I do have reservations the NDIS will become another over governed, expensive, multi layer service like our current Health/Medicare Service - lots of back office staff, limited front line staff.
I hope the NDIS will simplify the sharing of case information, within reasonable privacy parameters, and inform and offer individuals access to a much broader range of services.
I do have concerns of a huge new market of opportunists getting in on the new health gravy train, offering services without evidence of experience of working with disabled people.
I have concerns about the individual’s not being able to manage lump sums of money or being taken advantage of.
I agree for my submission to be made public