Submission 39 — Aspergers Victoria — Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

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ASPERGERS

VICTORIA

Is there anything else you would like to tell us? Are there any suggestions or recommendations you would like to share? Include any examples of what worked well, or ideas for how things could be done better. You might also like to tell us about any people that have supported you.

Our suggestions for this include:

1. Based on the Commonwealth Disability Employment Seivices Youth Mental Health Trial in 2015/16 for young people aged between 18 and 24 years who were living with a mental illness, an alternative approach suggested our membership : allocate to individuals with Aspergers an individual support package for employment support to help them transition to work. This successful trial provided an individualised support package of $5,000 that could be used to purchase goods and services including the services of :

2. a jobseeking coach

3. counselling

4. advocate/ job coach to advise a potential employer on impacts of disability and employability,

5. training

6. transport

7. work experience and

8. clothing and equipment In the trial, this allocation was payable to agencies to manage, but today individual support packages like this should be available to participants and their families to manage directly - similar to the NDIS approaches, cutting out the costly middle men. Aspergers Victoria was not consulted about this Trial.

9. Individual Funding for Job seeking, transition and retention via lived experience coach-mentors to assist Aspergers autistics with:

10. finding the right job

11. supporting transition to the employment including recruitment,

12. liaison with the employer to educate the employer and staff about best ways to support the Asperger /neurodiverse person

13. these coaches will need training in managing Aspergers and neurodiverse needs and have a certain level of understanding or lived experience

Such up front costs will lead to a better career pathway in the longer term for the Asperger, leading to more likely success, more employment and potentially less mental health issues resulting from unemployment.

3. An employment grants program for specialist organisations representing neurodiverse people in employment such as Aspergers Victoria, to apply for funding that will allow us to provide a range of employment based services directly including:

Our World of Work work experience program for Aspergers students which we have developed and require funding to progress further. Our research shows this will deliver work readiness skills in the most effective approach: preparing both the Asperger as well as the employer and requiring less job matching services by independent parties:

Our AV World of Work program will provide:

1. A job matching service for people with Aspergers and prepared employers.
2. Communication skills building for pre-work students and jobactive applicants: On the Jobactive website front page it highlights that “Employers want good communication skills” so Aspergers need to be given supports to build these skills earlier. Our program includes this by building it prior and on the job.

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3. Train more employers to understand the nuances of Aspergers staff. This will evolve as more employers realise their productivity etc by having Aspergers staff with right supports

4. Coaching and mentoring to support Aspergers to gain and maintain work. We have specialists already providing this service but need funding to expand our success.

5. This will all result in self advocacy and awareness of neurodiverse contribution through actual delivery of outcomes, abilities and contribution

6. Coaching & training of co-workers to grow community capability to adjust for communication differences

7. Work preparation and transition supports : This needs to start earlier for Aspergers. Early intervention for employability skills should get priority funding if you wish to reduce reliance on government supports later in their career process. Without such intervention jobactive supports will not succeed.

Preparation for work for Aspergers needs to to begin as early as late primary school and with work experience opportunities to build Aspergers capability and readiness. If education was made more relevant for the current job market and include communication and social skills supports, enterprise building focus with a work readiness focus for Aspergers earlier in the current education and the DET support systems. Our World of work-work experience program can deliver this work readiness with early Teens in school with our customised Work Experience Pathways Program.

5. Improvement in career guidance/readiness of students is a key priority in line with the recommendations in the report from the Inquiry into Career Advice Activities in Victorian Schools (22/8/2018) - with the added requirement that the training of Career Guidance teachers includes how to guide neurodiverse students including Aspergers. To be able to make the most of services, such as jobactive, students needs a better self awareness and readiness for the employment world. Our World of Work program and specifically Work Experience Pathways customised program is designed to provide this through our trained coaches.

   6. Circle of Support: Our member- suggested we have a funded circle of support around each Aspergers

autistic who needs added supports to assist the individual to gain/ maintain employment. This Circle of Support should typically be constituted by key people in the individual’s life comprising family, friends, neighbours, community groups, with some basic training empowering the Asperger towards employment as well as a trained mentor in the employer they are working with. The Circle meet regularly as a base commitment and as a controljaccountability mechanism, payment of the Circle support package could be made conditional upon establishment of a Circle and their basic training. This would be a cost effective support approach.

7. Training of government Jobactive & DSS staff in how to support Aspergers or a system that refers them to specialist organisations such as AV for support once it is beyond that agency.

8. Employer training & accountability: Employers must be trained in how to be more inclusive in their systems and environments: some form of recognition and incentive to support this. Those employers who take autistics on government-funded placements and subsidies must have an audit of suitability and assessment oftheir delivery of any employment which includes feedback by the autistic/disabled person. They would then be more accountable for the funding they receive - as are most not for profit grant organisations.

9. DES Training & accountability: require key training in autism before working with autistic jobseekers and also need to improve their skills at coaching and preparing employers. DES must not push autistics into the

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wrong roles just to suit their funding/outcome requirements - this causes trauma instead of helping their employment pathway.

10. Autistic Inclusive Design of Employment Supports: The needs of neurodiverse people including Aspergers autistics should be specifically considered in the redesign of Jobactive and other Australian Government programs. Our Aspergers needs are unique and need either a specialist subprogram within DES or ideally a dedicated ongoing national program established and funded to support these unique and valuable people and allow them the opportunity of self-fulfilment and to contribute

11. Update Work for the Dole These approaches would specifically acknowledge the unique talent contribution autistics can make when empowered to use their IQ, skills and expertise and the hidden issues faced by Aspergers autistics, whilst simultaneously recognising abilities. Aspergers will be then less reliant on generalist government services such as jobactive/ DES and can more directly guide their careers/ employment with more targeted funding allocation with improved employment results. In a few sentences, what would you like to tell our nation about your hopes for the future? We have a vision of a world where Aspergers autistics are included in their communities both socially and economically in a way that suits and appreciates our hidden communication and sensory needs. Thisis a world where people are inclusive of difference, including neuro-divergence that is subtle and yet direct.

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